Edwin Jackson didn’t get a lot of help today. He didn’t get help from the defense behind him, which kicked around a ball or two. He didn’t get help from his catcher, who couldn’t seem to stop any of his pitches down in the dirt. He didn’t get help from a relatively tight zone. And he didn’t get help from his manager, who arguably left him in too long in the decisive sixth inning.
But, the thing is, at some point, Jackson’s got to help himself. The underlying metrics continue to support Jackson’s performance this year as better than we might think, but he did give up 12(!) hits today, together with three walks. At some point, the headline numbers start to matter as much as the underlying ones. But Jackson is here to stay, so we’ll keep pulling for him to put together one of those “good” starts at some point.
At least Scott Hairston homered again. He seems to be doing that a fair bit lately. The Cubs also did more damage against Patrick Corbin than pretty much any team before them has.