Oh, my gosh … The Cubs won a game! Like, an actual regular season game. The losing streak is over at 12. Alert the church elders, fire up the presses, ready the steeds!
For as much as winning remains pointless at the moment (and perhaps even hurts the Cubs if you zoom out enough), it’s nice to get one. It just is.
Sure, they may have plated only two runs over nine innings, but that’s mostly the product of three untimely double plays throughout the game. Overall, the Cubs managed 11 hits, three for extra bases, and 2 walks in their 9.0 innings at the plate tonight. Three of those hits belong to Ian Happ, who had his first multi-hit game since July 2nd and his first three-hit game since MAY. But he wasn’t the only bright spot tonight, far from it, in fact.
Frank Schwindel notched another two hits, himself, including a double, which somehow made him the first right-handed Cubs hitter to grab an extra base hit in six consecutive games since … ARMAIS RAMIREZ in 2011 (h/t Jordan Bastian for uncovering that one). I have no idea how that’s true. But it is. And beyond that, every other non-pitcher (besides a pinch-hitting Michael Hermosillo) got on base at least once.
And we haven’t even gotten into the Cubs pitching, which was next to perfect against a very good offense with plenty to lose at a ballpark that’s often a paradise for hitters.
Kyle Hendricks had a no-hitter going into the 5th inning and ultimately allowed just a solo homer to Nick Castellanos. It was a huge, important bounceback appearance for Hendricks after being blown up by the Brewers his last time out (and as I pointed out before the game, before this season, Hendricks has been pretty awful at Great American Ballpark, so I was a bit worried for tonight).
Rowan Wick also made his third appearance and while he was relieved before he could record his third out, his stuff looked plenty good. The velocity is where you’d expect and his spin rates are still very high, even post sticky-stuff-enforcement. I care about that – and his two strikeouts – much more than I care about a couple singles and a hit-by-pitch where the batter didn’t move.
But perhaps one of the better stories of the night was Codi Heuer, who came in and recorded a 2.0 inning save, requiring just 17 pitches. He gave up exactly nothing and struck out two hitters. It was just a good game all around. And after the last few weeks we’ve had? I’m gonna enjoy it.