OSS: Pile of home runs just barely shores up a shaky bullpen
Three up
1. The aforementioned HR, by Fowler, Rizzo, Soler, and Castro. IIRC all of them that had an upper deck in their way landed there.
2. Jason Hammel was solid going seven innings and striking out eight, allowing two runs. He probably could have come out for the eighth inning, but I don’t have a beef with Maddon for pulling him. He did end his ridiculous walk trend, walking three in this game including Braun twice.
3. The key play in the game turned out to be Joe Maddon challenging a bang-bang play at first on a Bryant infield single. That overturnment led to what ended up as the winning run.
Three down
1. Aside from that hustle infield single, Bryant did not have a great day at the plate, going 0-4 with three strikeouts before that last play. I’m not worried about his power, just confused.
2. Pedro Strop still doesn’t look right, though at least it doesn’t look like it’s something physical. He was all over the place before striking out Maldonado with the bases loaded to end the 8th
3. Hector Rondon was also obviously bothered by something early in his outing. Not too much skin off his back for giving up a HR to Braun, who is good (though only when playing the Cubs this year), but something was definitely off. Hope we don’t see a DL stint in the cards for him too.
Next game: Wood vs Lohse, 6:10 PM CT