NEWSLETTER
The Cubs did it! They beat Jacob deGrom! That should ABSOLUTELY qualify them for the postseason.
Ian Happ went way deep on deGrom, and the Cubs otherwise got bunt happy to plate another two:
The Cubs bunted about five times in this one, and – contrary to my usual NEVER BUNT advice – it seemed to work out every time. When you’re facing guys like Jacob deGrom and Edwin Diaz, why not, I guess.
David Bote added an insurance dinger later, his second of the year:
On the pitching side, if you had Adrian Sampson outdueling Jacob deGrom on your 2022 Chicago Cubs bingo card, you should find out what witch made that bingo card.
I suppose you could argue, based on the strikeouts and walks, that Sampson didn’t ACTUALLY outduel deGrom, but hey, Sampson went 6.0 scoreless, and the Cubs plated three runs off of deGrom in his 6.0 innings of work. It was only the second time this season that a team had scored three runs off of deGrom. Cubs just doing their part to keep his price tag down this offseason, wink wink jk am i really wink
Sampson was outstanding, though, doing what he’s done at his best this year: avoided the barrel. Outside of a deep foul ball from an angry Pete Alonso, Sampson just wasn’t giving up much great contact. Alonso eventually got his homer in the 9th off of Brandon Hughes, working multiple innings for the second straight night (maybe time to ease off of him a bit? been a long season between the minors and the bigs).
