That’s a double-header sweep for the Dodgers, who weren’t whoopin’ on the Cubs tonight like they did earlier today, but the offense is just in quite a funk, outside, perhaps, of Willson Contreras, who had a three-hit night including a homer and a triple. The Cubs did manage the fake rally in the 9th off of old friend Craig Kimbrel, who got bailed out on a bs strike three call and a Jason Heyward rocket to the wall (.930 xBA) that was caught to end the game. Contreras was on deck when the game ended.
Hey, I mean the Dodgers only had three hits in the whole game, so it’s kinda like the Cubs won, right?
Daniel Norris got three outs in the first inning of his start tonight, and headed back out there to get in another inning of opener-type work. Reasonable decision. But then he walked the bases loaded, and Keegan Thompson – who was presumably always going to follow Norris – got pulled into an inning as dirty as it gets, and Mookie Betts cleared the bases. I’ve gotta agree with Brad here:
I don’t like the strategy of bringing the long guy in to a dirty inning. Ross did that with Gsellman too. Bring in Effross or someone who can just get you out of the inning. Now you’ve got your long man gassed trying to get out of a bases loaded jam.
— Brad (@ballskwok) May 8, 2022
The point of the bulk guy following the opener is to get three or four innings out of him. Do you really want him immediately in a high-stress moment, burning up a lot of that extra-oomph energy right away and then he has to go several more innings at something slightly diminished?
Betts also homered in the 9th – the first runs of the year off of David Robertson (in a non-save situation, grumble) – so it was quite a good night at the plate for him, though he had an adventurous night in right field.
Patrick Wisdom left the game early, perhaps in some discomfort from the foul ball he took off of his ankle in game one. I was surprised he started, to be honest, because it looked like it was bothering him earlier today.
Replay let the Cubs down on one that probably wouldn’t have mattered in the end, but it was kinda bananas that they didn’t get this right:
It's not just that it was ruled foul – it was ruled foul, and then the replay officials looked at it for several minutes and concluded, yeah, we're gonna stay with foul, even though it defies the laws of physics. https://t.co/V6Y2dzizeS
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) May 8, 2022
Whatever. Nighty night.
