For six innings, it looked like the Cubs’ bats were gonna slumber, and we’d have to be content with whatever silver linings we could find in this one.
The Cubs finally broke through in the 7th inning, putting two on (featuring ANOTHER pinch hit from Tommy La Stella), and forcing Wheeler from the game. Paul Sewald couldn’t prevent those two from scoring, or prevent Kris Bryant from knocking the go-ahead single with two outs.
A Kyle Schwarber three-run shot added needed insurance from there, and the Cubs ultimately won relatively comfortably. (Shout out to La Stella’s apprentice, Jon Lester, for working a professional pinch hit AB of his own, which helped the Cubs score one of those insurance runs.)
On the pitching front, Tyler Chatwood looked dramatically improved from his last two outings, when his wildness was completely out of control. This game, he merely looked to have poor command, which may be his ceiling with the Cubs – he can still be a successful starting pitcher with poor command, given his good stuff. He’s just gotta live around the strike zone a little more. Chatwood came into the sixth inning having walked only two, but then walked two more to start the inning, got a pop out, and was pulled.
Randy Rosario was excellent again, and while the Cubs being without Carl Edwards Jr. provides me no joy, I do appreciate that guys like Rosario, Cory Mazzoni, Luke Farrell, and Justin Hancock (in a rotation of sorts between the bigs and minors) will all get slightly more chances than they otherwise would have. Interesting that we’re not even talking about Dillon Maples yet at this juncture? It’s a credit to the front office’s work targeting these fringe reliever types in the last year. I digress.
The real hero tonight wasn’t Schwarber or Chatwood or Rosario or any of the Cubs’ players …