OSS: Cubs continue to get all the 2-out RBI
Three up:
1. Travis Wood had a solid day on the mound, striking out 9 Pirates in seven innings and walking none. His curveball wasn’t there for him, but the rest of his pitches more than made up for it.
2. The Cubs continued their streak of 2-out RBI, and spread them around. Two Pittsburgh errors and 6 walks had the Cubs on the basepaths all day, and they managed to chase Pirates starter Jeff Locke in only the fourth inning due to a ballooning pitch count.
3. Addison Russell looked a lot more comfortable at the plate today, and knocked in the first Cubs run with a double to left.
Three down:
1. Castro had a up and down day in the field today, making one throwing error early and getting an infield hit call in the next inning that could have gone either way. Of course, this was interspersed with a couple of spectacular plays that most people seem to forget (myself included, as I was reminded in the comments).
2. The Cubs biggest non-pitcher WPA event was a tough luck lineout by Beef Castle with runners on first and third in the second, which was some bad luck. Arguably the worst play was Dexter Fowler getting caught stealing in the first with Rizzo at the plate. I like how aggressive Maddon has been on the base paths, but come on. Tough to complain about this when the Cubs had 5 steals on the day though, not to mention multiple first-to-thirds.
3. Since I’m out of Cubs things to complain about, I’ll just put Josh Harrison’s hilariously bad throwing error midway through the game. It looked like an easy grounder, but he threw it about 5 rows into the 1b stands.
Next Game: Gerrit Cole vs. Kyle Hendricks, 7:05 PM CT