Cubs 2, LADoLA 0 (5.30.16)

OSS: Cubs were one early bloop away from a combined no-hitter.

Three up:

2013 Cubs MVP Travis Wood stepped up and pitched four perfect innings in emergency relief of Jason Hammel, who left after two innings with a hamstring cramp. I did a triple take when I saw his line in the box score and it said he had a 2.79 ERA. It's not that surprising when you consider that four scoreless innings out of 19 total IP *could* make a big difference.
Strop, Grimm, and Rondon closed the door in what was seven perfect innings by the pen. Their combined line on the day was 7 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 BB, 8 SO.
The offense had a pretty quiet day, but the most memorable moment was probably Anthony Rizzo picking up his first extra base hit in two weeks or so, a double to right that scored Heyward from first base.

Three down:

That Hammel injury is a bummer, but it looks like it was indeed just cramping. It looks like he's still on track to make his next start.
There would be less grumbling about the blooper that dropped in the first if it hadn't also happened the other night. Though in the Cubs defense Heyward hasn't played much CF this year so the communication was probably off. Still that ball should have been caught.
Did Rizzo get drilled in retaliation for Strop quick-pitching the Dodgers? Sounds like they should have been throwing at the umpire.

Next up: Kazmir vs Arrieta, 7:05 PM CT

Comments

cerulean

May 30, 2016 at 10:19 pm

The Dark Knight will not be traded for a bag of balls, wishes he could face the good guys in black more.

The Royals just did Royals things.

A great white shark among Giants was taken down by the plural form of a synonym for vomit.

The Pirates and the Cardinals destroyed their non-Cubs opponents, but let’s be honest, they were thinking of the Cubs the whole time.

ceruleanQuote Reply

cerulean

May 30, 2016 at 11:18 pm

The Cubs’ 538 Elo has reached a new high on both the current and the historical charts:

1590 current
1573 historical

For context on the historical chart, the Cubs began the year at 1527 when Elo adjusts for the new season. They are now 27 points from 1600. The last team to hit 1600 was the 2009 Yankees when they won the World Series. The last teams to break 1600 during the regular season were the 2001 A’s and Mariners, the 1998 Yankees. Those are the only four teams to break that threshold in the last twenty years. They have added 11 points (from 1562) since that walk-off loss to the Cardinals.

ceruleanQuote Reply

May 31, 2016 at 3:29 am

OK, it may be lame but it needs to be said.

Dodgers were probably mentally unprepared after their New York drama series, working late the night before, and not getting to Chicago until after 3 a.m. It’s not like a hurricane destroyed their state and they had to play a home game in Milwaukee, but surely they were less than 100%.

But having been duly punished for that in game one, I’d say they are on the back foot now for the rest of the series.

SKQuote Reply