The Cubs couldn’t pull off the series victory, marking just their second series loss this season. Despite that, they finish April at just two games over .500, and it all feels fairly unsatisfying. Not unlike tonight’s loss.
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Kyle Hendricks gave up a mammoth two-run bomb to Hanley Ramirez in the first inning – drink! – but that was it in another outing where he seemed to improve and get a better feel as the game went along. If you want something good to take out of tonight’s game, take that.
As for the rest of the game, we were momentarily treated to an exciting time, as Kris Bryant homered and then Jon Jay scored from second base on a wild pitch to tie the game in the 7th inning. But it didn’t last long.
A game of inches and all that: the pivotal 8th inning started for the Red Sox with a grounder toward first base, on which Koji Uehara couldn’t quite get to the bag quickly enough. It was one of those “whatever was called on the field is gonna stick” plays, and it was followed by a couple more hits to load the bases with nobody out. Pedro Strop came in to try to get out of the nearly impossible situation, and although he struck out Mookie Betts (no small feat), he bounced a slider that Willson Contreras could not handle, allowing the lead run to score.
Otherwise, Strop actually got some grounders, but one scored a run on a force out, and another got thrown away by Addison Russell (which totally could’ve been dug by Anthony Rizzo) to score another couple runs.
A tense, tight, enjoyable game quickly became a pile of dung.
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