The Cubs were desperately searching for decent starts, and we were talking about how it felt like it had been so long since they got a true, end-to-end dominant start … and then Jose Quintana and Cole Hamels went out and did it two days in a row. That’s swell. Kyle Hendricks is gonna continue it today, baby.
For Hamels, it was just another day at the park at Wrigley Field, where he is the best pitcher in the stadium’s history (1.606 ERA is the best for any pitcher who has made at least 10 starts there (of course, for much of that, he was getting to face terrible Cubs teams, but he’s still been good WITH the Cubs (and even the Cubs team he no-hit was actually quite good))):
Cole Hamels is now the best pitcher who's ever stepped foot on the Wrigley Field mound and he explained why he's had so much success here in his career.
Hamels has now made 15 starts with the Cubs spanning 95.1 innings, posting a 2.64 ERA, and a 3.55 FIP. Believe it or not, yesterday was his second best start as a Cub by game score, behind only that incredible outing against the Nationals last year (the one that ended a certain grand slam). Also, his name is Colbert, and I think he should go by Colbert.
(Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
Cubs bullpen scoreless streak counter: 18.2 innings. And it means they’ve hit a milestone:
Thanks to Brandon Kintzler's scoreless 9th yesterday, and the current 18.2 inning scoreless streak, the Cubs' bullpen ERA is now under 6! THEY DID IT! pic.twitter.com/MBrOwWz3SW
Maybe Cubs pitchers just needed a little home cooking. They’ve allowed a total of six runs in four games at home this week, and five of those runs came in one game. (I guess the Pirates and Angels current lineups didn’t hurt either.)
The Cubs put together a nice tribute package for Tommy La Stella’s return yesterday:
Gotta love this take from Baseball America on Cubs prospect Nico Hoerner, and just how rare it is for a college draftee to start out his first full pro season at AA or higher: “Baseball America looked at the top 40 picks from the last nine drafts and found that, of the 84 position players from four-year universities[], just 10 started their first full pro season at Double-A or higher.” Those 10? Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber, Alex Bregman, Anthony Rendon, Mike Zunino, Christian Colon, Trea Turner, Kolten Wong, and Brent Rooker. Basically, it doesn’t really happen except for positional college prospects that teams think are obvious big leaguers who are going to be very good in The Show very soon. That doesn’t mean it always works out, but it’s pretty clear just how highly the Cubs think of Hoerner.
Through 25 plate appearances, by the way, Hoerner is hitting .250/.400/.300 thanks primarily to a 20.0% walk rate. Challenge him more in the zone, you cowards.
Another day, another dominating start by someone in the Cubs’ AA rotation – this time it was Cory Abbott, who went 5.2 innings, allowing eight hits but just one walk and one run, striking out eight. That group of five prospects has yet to put up a start that wouldn’t make you happy.
Former Cubs prospect Eloy Jimenez hit his first big league homer last night, and then later added a second. Good for him. We always knew he was going to have a big, big bat, but I will say that it helps me in this moment that Jose Quintana is coming off one of his best starts with the Cubs.
Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here.
Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.
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