It ends with a whimper. Jason Heyward doubles to lead off the 9th and bring the tying run to the plate, and then three straight strikeouts to end the game and the season. Perfect ending.
I mean, Yu Darvish was great once again, but he’s it, man. Almost everything else you could say about today’s game you could also say about the season, and most of it would fit with that word, whimper.
The Marlins got a couple runs off of Darvish in his 7th inning of work, and the bats didn’t do anything. Season over.
The Cubs had a decent scoring chance in the 4th when the first two batters walked and Kris Bryant lined one to the right side that is a hit in normal circumstances, but the LACK of a shift (because of the runners on) meant it was right at the second baseman. Jason Heyward followed with a broken back single to right, and Willson Contreras was thrown out at the plate trying to score. A lotta people beefed about the send, but when the offense is struggling this badly, I think there’s a justification there. It took a perfect field, throw, and tag to get Contreras. That said, replays showed Contreras hesitated initially on the hit, and having seen that, a hold would’ve made more sense. Who knows what would’ve happened otherwise, but you’re going against evidence if you think the bats would’ve blown up that inning.
The Cubs loaded the bases the next inning with two outs, but Kyle Schwarber flew out to end the threat. Those were the Cubs’ chances against Sixto Sanchez, and they didn’t come through. Against the bullpen, it was a bunch of meh.
I’m gonna go be extremely pissed off for a minute.