Anthony Rizzo, My Captain.
With the Cubs’ bats doing a whole lot of nothing all night, Rizzo came to the plate against Kenley Jansen, trying to close out a win for the second night in a row. Jansen had just plunked Rizzo’s buddy, Kris Bryant, and Rizzo made him pay with a game-winning two-run homer.
I am floating.
It is both important and satisfying that Yu Darvish pitched as well as he did tonight (in his first start against the Dodgers in L.A., no less). No qualifications. No reservations. Darvish just dominated, and looked like a guy who deserved the dominating results he was getting against a good lineup in their place. One ball got parked out in center field, but that was it. Just a fantastic outing.
And it almost didn’t matter in the final accounting, because the Cubs’ offense did a lot of nothing until that magical 9th inning. Walker Buehler is very, very good, and I’ll give him plenty of credit. Still, you’d like to have seen a little more mustered before it was crunch time.
But hey, who is actually going to complain on a night when the Cubs not only won, but did it against Jansen in the 9th inning? That’s fun as heck. Such a good win. And the Cubs are back in a tie atop the NL Central standings, too!