Whew. That’s the kind of win the Cubs needed after two straight losses and Steve Cishek’s unexpected injury, eh?
The Cubs bats came alive at Coors Field this afternoon, scoring 10 runs on 12 hits and 5 walks, including two homers – Kyle Schwarber’s 14th and Javy Baez’s 17th of the season (see below). And those weren’t the only Cubs contributing offensively. Carlos Gonzalez *and* Victor Caratini each went 2-4 with a double, a walk, and two runs scored, Jason Heyward had two hits and a walk plus 2 RBI, and even Cole Hamels had two hits and 2 RBI on the day.
Speaking of Hamels, he was extremely good this afternoon, going 7.0 full, scoreless innings with just six hits and one walk against 9 strikeouts. That’s impressive in any stadium, but especially against these Rockies at Coors Field. His ERA for the season is now sitting at a cool 2.98 ERA (which ranks 15th in MLB, one spot ahead of Kyle Hendricks at 3.00).
His only blemish on the day was (almost certainly) purposefully hitting Nolan Arenado, who had to leave the game, seemingly in retaliation for Kris Bryant. Naturally, Anthony Rizzo was then plunked in retaliation of that later on (because that’s how this goes every single time), but I’ve already wasted enough energy getting mad about retaliation on a day when the CUBS WON BY 9 RUNS AND AVOIDED A SWEEP!
Plus, Rizzo stole second base after that HBP and then Javy Baez launched a massive homer and watched it for quite some time afterwords:
This is how you retaliate. pic.twitter.com/K0YemUMSaY
— Cubs Talk (@NBCSCubs) June 12, 2019
Cubs win. Cubs avoid the sweep. Now it’s off to Los Angeles.