That’s four in a row! That’s a winning streak, I’d say. And the Cubs are .500 again!
Did things get a little more thorny in the 9th than you would have liked to see when the Cubs had a 5-0 lead? Sure. But eventually, that was going to happen. Or did you think this was going to last forever:
Cubs' shutout streak ends at 31 innings. Per STATS, was longest run for Chicago since a 31-inning run from July 4-8, 1976.
— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) April 19, 2019
Most of today’s work on that shutout front came from Kyle Hendricks, who gave the Cubs their third straight scoreless start of at least seven innings. And he was really, really on point today, commanding his pitches very well, working the nasty changeup, and notching 11 strikeouts through his 7.0 innings of work.
10 Kyle Hendricks Changeups (all swinging/looking strikes) from today in 15 Seconds. pic.twitter.com/XvZ3AQPgRf
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 19, 2019
Offensively, the Cubs got big help from the wind, and a triple(!) from Anthony Rizzo!
Oh, but Hendricks threw his first wild pitch since 2016 (real stat!), so that really brought the day down … (I kid) …