Cubs 12, Giants 11

OSS: Blow *ALL* the leads!

Three up:

Kris Bryant had the last big hit of the day, a two run shot in the eighth that put the Cubs ahead for the last time. That homer alone was worth nearly half a win in WPA. KB also singled as a part of the Cubs rally in the sixth inning.
Nick Castellanos also had a huge day, going 4-5 with a home run and three RBI. His slash line with the Cubs going into this game was .365/.405/.743. Suffice to say this trade deadline pickup is working out okay so far.
Most of the pitching staff struggled, but the “good” relievers in the Cubs bullpen took care of business in the eighth and ninth innings with relatively little drama. Kintzler and Kimbrel struck out four in two scoreless innings, and wonder of wonders didn’t walk anyone.

Three down:

Yu Darvish had been on fire of late, but he was burned by the long ball in this one. His final line was 5.1 IP, 7 H, 7 R, 0 BB, 8 K. The fact that he issued zero walks for his fifth start in a row is certainly a good sign that today’s start was probably a blip.
Tyler Chatwood looked great the other night, but he struggled tonight, walking the leadoff man and allowing two singles before getting pulled for the recently called up Steve Cishek.
Derek Holland was brought in to relieve Darvish and promptly gave up a walk and a single to two left handed batters. Joe left him in to face a righty, but Holland really should just have one job (which he failed at in this one). In Maddon’s somewhat defense the next two batters after said RHB were both lefties, but someone should probably remind Joe that Holland was picked up to be a LOOGY.

Next up: The Cubs go for the sweep, and Cyle takes on former Cub Jeff Samardzija at 1:20 PM CT. I’m still not entirely convinced that the whole Samzardzija transformation actually happened, and it was a all just a dream or something. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll wake up and it will suddenly be 2012 again, and instead of Shark nearly throwing a complete game in his first start of the year he’ll have been chased out of the game in the second inning like we all expected. We could do a lot worse than transporting ourselves back to 2012.