NEWSLETTER
No shocking sweep for the Cubs against the Braves, though the do still get the series win. Ian Anderson pretty much owned the Cubs’ bats today, except for fellow Ian, Ian Happ.
Kyle Hendricks pitched really well for a three-inning stretch today … but that’s not much to write home about when those three innings were bookended by particularly rough ones. The bounce back in his last start did not carry over.
There was the obligatory first-inning homer (with two runners on base, in today’s case), and then there was the looooud contact in the 5th inning to chase him from the game. Hendricks wound up giving up FIVE barrels in the game. A lot of non-competitive pitches, a lot left up, and a lot left out over the middle of the plate.
By contrast, Adrian Sampson came outta nowhere today looking DOMINANT. Almost half of the pitches the Braves swung at against him wound up whiffs (nearly a quarter of his total pitches went for whiffs!), and it was on everything he was throwing. No idea where that came from.
Probably doesn’t “mean” much for the future – especially because it was zero leverage – but you gotta remember, Sampson was a pretty extreme control-contact guy last year with the Cubs. Heck, even at Iowa this year, his strikeout rate was UNDER 15%. A day like today just looks really, really bizarre. Like Andrelton Simmons coming out and having a multi-homer game.
