I know I sound like a broken record, but it really did happen again: a Cubs starting pitcher commanded all his pitches extremely well, and an opposing team couldn’t put good wood on him.
Tonight it was Alec Mills, who got BABIP’d into giving up a few of his hits, but really was just phenomenal. He did what he does again – commanding five pitches to all four corners of the zone, keeping hitters uncomfortably off-balance all night. He is a lot of fun to watch, because he’s basically the most extreme version of “pitchability” you can imagine. The average exit velocity off of him tonight was 79.2 mph. Incredible.
Good work by Casey Sadler and Rowan Wick out of the bullpen tonight. Also, fantastic work at third base by David Bote. Glove was on fire tonight.
Offensively, it was a quiet night for the Cubs – mostly good pitching by the Royals. The Cubs loaded the bases with nobody out against Danny Duffy in the 5th, and it seemed like he was running out of gas – all while having to face the heart of the Cubs’ lineup. But he got Anthony Rizzo to pop up, then a sac fly from Javy Báez, and got Willson Contreras to ground out. One run in that situation is better than nothing, but far from ideal. Thankfully it didn’t matter.