Can we say that was a big win? It really feels like a big win.
Consider: the Cardinals had just pulled into a first place tie with the Cubs, but lost today. The Cubs had lost three straight series, and had been playing miserably on the road out west all year. The Diamondbacks are very good.
And the Cubs beat them today, taking two of three in the series, and bumping themselves back out a game ahead of the Cardinals.
Jake Arrieta was excellent once again through six innings, and the bullpen was mostly flawless from there. The bats missed a number of scoring opportunities early on, but homers from Javy Baez, Ian Happ, and Kris Bryant in the final two innings put the game away.
The bullpen was great with the exception of Wade Davis, who was called into a non-save situation part of the way into the 9th inning to face Paul Goldschmidt, who summarily homered. There were some unnerving moments from there, but Davis got a couple strikeouts to end the game.
Also, Kyle Schwarber can’t stop striking out, Anthony Rizzo is in a big slump, and Ben Zobrist’s nightmare season continues … but hey, today’s a happy day.