Enhanced Box Score: Cubs 3, Padres 1 – June 9, 2021
What a huge win. Not only do the Cubs take the series – on the road, against the Padres – but they move this West Coast road trip to a 3-4 total, which is just not bad at all. I totally would’ve taken that when the trip started, so I’ll take it now. And the fact that it took winning the final two games of the trip to get there? Somehow makes me feel even better.
The reunion with Yu Darvish went about how you would expect, with him mostly dominating a depleted Cubs lineup. But Joc Pederson went deep, and the Cubs mustered a run in his final inning on an Ian Happ walk, a Patrick Wisdom single, and an Anthony Rizzo GIDP to give them a late lead (to which Sergio Alcantara added with his first Cubs homer).
Note that Wisdom did not homer today – WHAT?!? – but he did get that key single, and also made this awesome play basically at shortstop:
On the results side of things, Jake Arrieta was really nearly matching Darvish’s performance, with his best outing in a good while. The command was pretty darn good and the stuff was really crisp. Hey, maybe last start really was just about him trying to pitch while sick!
The bullpen was perfect to make the small lead stand up, with Ryan Tepera getting in there for six outs. That’s an MVP-vote-getter performance right there.
Very happy win today.
