OSS: Hendricks comes through in the biggest PA of the game, but the Marlins manage a big inning anyway.
Three up
1. Junior Lake was the Cubs WPA leader on the day, hitting two doubles and looking pretty good at the plate in general. He’s a different hitter than the guy we saw last year.
2. Starlin Castro flashed the leather today, with several great defensive plays at shortstop.
3. As JD said on the broadcast, the numbers didn’t bear it out but Kyle Hendricks was the better pitcher today. He ran into trouble in the fifth after a pitcher hit that found a hole, a perfect bunt single by Dee Gordon (with an error by Herrera), and a walk to Martin Prado to load the bases with no outs for Giancarlo Stanton. Hendricks went on to hang clown shoes on Stanton in what was easily the biggest PA of the game, and almost got out of trouble entirely before letting down a bit with two outs and the much less threatening Ozuna at the plate. Hendricks finished with seven strikeouts in six innings, and his changeup was nearly unhittable for most of the game.
Three down
1. The letdown double to Ozuna was the biggest play of the game, numbers wise, so if we’re giving credit to Hendricks for clowning Stanton he gets the blame here too.
2. Addison Russell’s TOOTBLAN in the ninth inning, I just can’t even.
3. The Cubs faced back to back starters who had just recently been pressed into service from the bullpen, one of which was a good prospect who still has some development left to do (Urena), and the other a quintessential AAAA starter, and only managed five runs combined off of them. These are the kinds of guys this offense should be lighting up.
Next game: Jon Lester vs Dan Haren, 6:05 PM CT