OSS: *trademarks Jorge Soler Laser Show*
Three up:
1. Jorge Soler was the star of the day, with two absolute bombs, both with Anthony Rizzo on base. Teams are growing to respect his cannon of an arm too, and he got an assist following a Lester throwing error early in the game.
2. Arismendy Alcantara got his first hit of the season, and it was a walkoff single. Despite the lack of base hits, he’s looked a lot more comfortable at the plate this year. He already has five walks on the season, despite putting up only 17 in 300 PAs last year.
3. Hector Rondon may have saved the game for the Cubs with a heads-up play to nail Joey Votto at 3b in extra innings on a hard come-backer.
Three down:
1. Lester’s stuff is there, but you can tell he’s still knocking the rust off. He also threw to first a few times, hoping to shut up the narrative that has sprung up. On the one hand, he almost picked off Zack Cozart(never mind, that was Ross), on the other hand he threw a pickoff throw into RF, so sadly it looks like this isn’t going away.
2. Cubs fans would like to thank Reds manager Bryan Price for letting Aroldis Chapman watch this from the sidelines. Gotta get that SV, even when the Cubs had bases juiced and nobody out, exactly when you want a guy with a 15+ K/9 on the mound.
3. Dexter Fowler had a rough night at the plate, going 0-5 with two strikeouts, but had a few solid defensive plays in CF.
Next game: 7:05 PM CT, Arrieta vs Tony DeSclafani
Will the Cubs win?: Bigger question is whether I stay awake. I nodded off for a few innings of this one but was woken up by the Soler bomb.