NEWSLETTER
Yeah! How do YOU like to lose a close one late, Marlins?!
Outside of a Matt Mervis dunk shot to drive in a run earlier in the game, the Cubs had once again done the thing where they kept squandering opportunities all afternoon and trailed in a one-run game. I feared it might happen again in the 8th when Mervis struck out with runners on second and third and nobody out. The Cubs just needed a ball in play to tie it!
Thankfully, the guy you’d really want up there in a ball-in-play spot was due up, and Nick Madrigal did his job and then some:
Then, to cap it off as a very nice day for Madrigal, he ended the game with an outstanding play at third base:
Not only was I very happy to see Miguel Amaya get his first big league hit, I was very happy to see him brought in to pinch hit for Tucker Barnhart in an RBI spot late in the game. It felt very appropriate.
It was a gift hit, by the way. But nobody deserved it more than Miggy, who has scorched the ball five times so far in the bigs without a hit to show for it until this:
On the other side of the ball, Drew Smyly wasn’t at his sharpest, though mostly the Marlins just kinda ground him down. He threw well over 30 pitches in the first inning, and it dramatically shortened his day. Thankfully the bullpen was ready to pick up the slack in a major way. It was a bullpen game by design for the Marlins today; for the Cubs it just kinda ended up that way. And the Cubs did better.
