The Chicago Cubs were on a four-game losing streak, and were just swept at home by the team that had formerly been behind them in the NL Central standings. So, then, the Cubs were bumped to last place, and things looked particularly dire with the best team in baseball, the Tampa Bay Rays, coming to town.
I won’t be even CLOSE to so bold as to suggest that yesterday’s win will suddenly turn things around. But I will say that it ended the losing streak – because, hey, that’s just a fact – and I will say that Marcus Stroman more or less did it entirely on his own. That expression about “you’re only as good as your next day’s starting pitcher” sure proved true.
Some enjoyment from the outing …
First, the highlights, of course:
At nine shutout innings with just one hit and one walk allowed, plus eight strikeouts (and a 63.2% groundball rate just for good measure), that start has to be one of the Cubs’ best in the last decade. When you consider he was facing the best offense in baseball – by a good margin – Stroman’s performance becomes all the more incredible.
The Game Score used by FanGraphs had it at a 99, which is an absurd number, and is the best I can find for a Cubs pitcher since Jake Arrieta’s first no-hitter against the Dodgers (102). That’s right: by Game Score, Stroman just pitched a better game than Arrieta’s second no-hitter against the Reds (4 BB, 6 K; 91 GS). The other game you might remember being close was Kyle Hendricks’s season-opening shutout of the Brewers in 2020, which was a 98 (3 H, 9 K).
More on the history side, with Stroman doing something no Cubs starter has done for two decades:
Consider the cap tipped from the opposing side: “We were very prepared and aware of what he was going to do,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “But sometimes, all that awareness, it doesn’t matter if the pitcher’s executing like he did today.”
For Stroman, it was a career highlight, and a reminder of how special the fans are at Wrigley Field:
It was also a career best:
Stroman’s command has been JARRINGLY good: