With the Cubs’ offense struggling as it is, even Jon Niese presents a tough battle these days. That’s just the funk the Cubs are in right now, and, mostly, Niese cruised.
Fortunately for the Cubs, the Mets suffer from similar offensive woes, and the Cubs’ pitchers took advantage. Kyle Hendricks was fantastic for six scoreless innings, and, while it’s not quite the same thing as dominating a stacked lineup, these are all still big league hitters – you still have to execute the pitches. Hendricks did so with aplomb.
The Cubs’ new back-end trio of Rondon-Strop-Motte, in that order, took care of things from there.
And the Cubs didn’t do much offensively, but they did just enough …