OSS: Javy walks it off in the 13th to complete the sweep of the Nationals.
Three up
- Javy Baez hit a long blast to the left field bleachers to end this looooong, sloppy, game. Not surprisingly, he was the Cubs leading WPA position player of the day.
- The bullpen posted eight scoreless innings after Jake Arrieta could only make it through
threefive innings today. Bonus points to Trevor Cahill who also got a hit in the Cubs rally in the seventh inning. - Not far behind Baez in WPA was Ben Zobrist, who went 1-4 with two walks, a ROE, and scored on a wild pitch in the fourth inning. Oddly enough his walk to load the bases in the first was the least impactful one per WPA.
Three down
- Arrieta was not sharp today, and it looked like he had way too much movement on his pitches. Making it look worse was a pretty spotty strike zone by the home plate umpire and Tim Fedex, who was crossed up about thirty times in this game. It’s too bad David Ross didn’t start this game, was something I never expected to write.
- Joe burned through his bench pretty early but for once I’m not going to complain about a pitcher (Cahill) batting in a key moment. I think most managers are far too conservative with how they use their bench/backup catchers and I think in the long run Maddon’s aggressiveness on this has been a net bonus for the Cubs. Still, it would be pretty nice to not have a 8-man bullpen when you have multiple guys who can throw 2+ innings.
- Who knew that Bryce Harper was secretly replaced by mid 00s Barry Bonds? Of course, it didn’t help Harper that the Cubs (seemingly rightly) had zero respect for Ryan Zimmerman’s .236/.293/.340 slash line. Six walks, three of them intentional, is pretty tough to stomach.
Next up: The Cubs face the Padres in a three game set at Wrigley. Jon Lester v Cesar Vargas, 7:05 PM CT