OSS: Cubs cruise to another win behind Jay Carrieta
Three up
1. Jake Arrieta had another dominating performance, striking out ten in seven innings. Over his last six starts, he’s pitched 46.2 innings, giving up five runs and seven walks, striking out 54. Since we saw so much of Samardzija with the Cubs, his Transformation seems more baffling, but Arrieta might be an even bigger surprise.
2. Buckets led the team in WPA today with .187, mostly due to his bases-loaded single off of Shelby Miller in the second. Miller has been nails this year, but some shaky defense in the 5% of the field not covered by Andrelton Simmons and an ill-timed walk to Feared Hitter David Ross set up Herrera for what turned out to be the GWRBI.
3. Jorge Soler hit his first homer since his return from the disabled list, which was great to see. He’s been getting his hits most days but the power hadn’t seemed to be all the way back yet. The Cubs offense should sure use a few hot weeks from him.
Three down
1. Not much to complain about here. The bullpen had a few yips closing out the game, but meh.
2. Castro had the highest non-pitcher-hitting negative WPA in the game, striking out with the bases loaded in the fifth.
3. Happy trails to Edwin Jackson, who was designated for assignment to make room for Rafael Soriano. I was largely positive on the deal when the Cubs signed him (though wish even more in retrospect that they pushed harder for Anibal). All credit to Edwin for being a great teammate through what had to be a difficult time in his baseball career – I don’t think anyone in the clubhouse even had anything bad to say about him. It’s been the right move for a while now, but I hope he can turn things around with some team whose name doesn’t rhyme with urinals.