How about a nice little comeback win, eh?
Jon Lester had some nasty movement tonight, and, despite the walks, actually had pretty good command, too. It’s just that he wasn’t getting any calls off the edge of the plate like he usually does, so, even though he was hitting his spots almost perfectly, he wound up in a lot of deep counts and giving up some walks. The umpire was simply calling a tight, but not inaccurate, strike zone.
That put the Cubs down early, but they were able to add three runs on solo homers and another run on a squeeze bunt by David Ross, and then Lester and the bullpen combined to shut down the Pirates.[adinserter block=”1″]
What a crazy night for Javier Baez. He made a notable mistake in the field and grounded into a bases loaded double play, but he also made some stellar plays at third, pulled off another magic slide on the bases, and scored a run that he manufactured entirely with his legs.
Hector Rondon went 1.1 innings for the save, which is mildly noteworthy of its own accord, but it meant a lot more, because he got to take his first big league at bat! And he looked like he was having some fun up there. Well, at least until he struck out trying to bunt.
And, of course, the Cubs went deep aplenty …