Another one! The Cubs just did not throw up the road block this weekend for the boulder that is the Cardinals.
I was driving for today’s game, so my take on it is pretty limited. Keegan Thompson had, by far, his best start with the Cubs since returning to the rotation. He managed just 3.0 innings, but he struck out a whopping 7 in that time – an extremely tall feat for a guy who was otherwise having trouble missing any bats whatsoever. I’ll dig into that some more tomorrow.
Thompson was followed by Adbert Alzolay, who has basically been a stud in all of his multi-inning relief appearances in the second half. It’s mostly been about managing his innings, so it doesn’t mean he isn’t going to get a starting shot again next year. Just nice to know he can have this kind of success in bursts.
After that, though, the theoretical back-end duo struggled, with Rowan Wick giving up a game-tying dinger in the 8th, and Codi Heuer walking everyone in the 9th (his second straight yikes outing).
Nice day for Rafael Ortega atop the order, but pretty thin otherwise for the bats.