NEWSLETTER
Cubs hold on to win! And the Orioles are not a bad team, so, hey, that counts as a solid win!
And that was an EXTREMELY fun final play, in my opinion:
Dude was kinda hung out to dry by it being such a weird soft liner, but great in the moment decision by Nick Madrigal to not let it drop and go for the double-play that way. When the runner is caught in the middle, just pick a direction and go hard. That was just fun.
The defense was all over today, with some terrible moments and also some great ones. Willson Contreras was part of two nice run-saving plays at the plate, and generated two runs of his own with a couple big swings (how the heck did this first one get out):
The Cubs got into some trouble in the 8th after Sean Newcomb struggled to find the zone, but Erich Uelmen did his best to clean it up – groundball single, fly out, ground out, strikeout. He’s been used a LOT in those kinds of messy, high-leverage moments, and you’ve gotta believe it’s because the Cubs love his stuff so much that they want to test his ability to stay in himself.
The start, of course, was a great one by Adrian Sampson, who just won’t stop being solid.
