While the rest of the baseball world was enraptured by Shohei Ohtani’s singularly incredible accomplishment, Cubs fans were treated to the Cubs, having briefly blown a lead, coming back late to win this one.
The Nationals lineup is quite a bit better these days than it was at the start of the year, and a five-inning, three-run start from Javier Assad is acceptable. The back end of the bullpen was more than acceptable, locking things down after the Cubs re-took the lead in the 7th.
The top of the order carried the weight tonight for the Cubs offense, with each of the first four hitters in the lineup posting multi-hit nights.
It has been a really rough time of late for Drew Smyly coming into tight and messy spots, and just not at all getting out of it. Some of it is just regression, but some of it feels like the Cubs having to use him like the “lefty reliever” when that’s just not really how he’s most effective. Losing Luke Little and Mark Leiter Jr. (for different reasons), plus not having any of the fringe lefty reclamation options work out, has stung the Cubs quite a bit.
Todayโs Ankin Law โMaking It Personalโ Player of the Game is actually gonna be all four dudes atop the order. They reached base so many times that it ultimately didn’t even matter that the Cubs went just 2 for 12 with runners in scoring position.