My first instinct was to make this a really short piece with a hat tip. My second instinct was to put Hunter Greene on the cover for this one. All kidding aside, a H&G hat tip to Greene. He posted a .780 WPA tonight for the Reds. No Cubs starting pitcher has posted a game score that high in my time writing this feature. The last starting pitcher anywhere close to this was Marcus Stroman on May 29, 2023 with a .734. That’s an amazing performance. He was nearly unhittable. I didn’t see every pitch of the game, but I thought maybe I saw about four balls all night that were reasonably squared up. A few BCB updates ago, I used to have a signature that said something to the effect of sometimes you just tip your hat to the other guy and move on to the next game.
Speaking of things that I’ve written here, I remember just a couple of days ago making a joke about how unusual 1-0 games were and that they’d basically gone the way of the dodo bird. That’s, of course, hyperbole. They still happen. But this game did feel like a bit of a throwback. A nine-inning complete game and only three pitchers threw in the game. Two great pitching efforts, a total of five hits and two walks against 21 strikeouts. Woof. This was, in fact, the third 1-0 game the Cubs have been involved with this year. On August 1, the Cubs won won against the Orioles with a win by Cade Horton. (Crazy note from that day in baseball, the Cubs were two games back of the Brewers.) The Cubs also won a game against Cleveland 1-0 in 10 innings. For whatever it’s worth, all three of these 1-0 wins went to the home team.