YES. WOOHOO. HOORAY. YEEHAW. HELL FREAKIN’ YEAH. What a ball game. The first Friday 1:20 game of the year did not disappoint. That Shohei Ohtani 8th inning flyout. That 9th inning challenge from Craig Counsell. And that line drive that seemed ticketed for a game-tying single into right field but was ultimately snagged by Michael Busch for the final out of the game! My god. I am sweating. I have no finger nails left. That was a blast.
Who knows what happens the rest of the weekend — or the rest of the season, for that matter — but for today, the Chicago Cubs kept pace with arguably the best team in baseball, beating the Los Angeles Dodgers by a final score of 9-7 on a very windy, sunny, and wild day at Wrigley Field.
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There’s so much to get into from this one, much more than we have time for in this space. But among the big takeaways: At first, Kyle Hendricks looked a little better than the results, with some bad luck and windy-plays skewing his performance. But eventually, the luck evened out on some incredible defensive plays in his/the Cubs favor, and it wasn’t much of a successful day for him. To be honest, I’m not particularly concerned about Hendricks given how strong the Dodgers lineup is and how tough the conditions were today (he really did look like he had it going early on). But he’s definitely going to need tight defense all year long to succeed. He’s just not the same guy he was, but that can still work at the back of the rotation.
Speaking of defense, what started off iffy ended up being kind of amazing. Nick Madrigal was flashing the leather and a much stronger arm than I remember all game. Nico Hoerner had an incredible play. Dansby Swanson did his thing. And Michael Busch literally saved the day with a game-winning diving stop with two outs in the ninth. He also hit his first homer as a Chicago Cub, which is fun.
The game ball, though, has to go to Drew Smyly, who entered the game with no outs and runner on second as the game seemed to be falling off the rails. He struck out the first three batters he faced and ultimately went 2.2 IP with 1H, 1BB, and 5Ks. Two earned runs were credited toward him, but they scored after he left. If you were watching the game, you know just how critical he was in shutting the Dodgers down.
Anyway, wow. What a way to start off the weekend. Go Cubs. That’s FIVE-IN-A-ROW!