I talked over the weekend about the Cubs and answering challenges. The Washington Nationals are still rebuilding. They aren’t Mt. Everest. Also, winning on the road is hard. The Nationals are under .500 at home, but they aren’t the Rockies. Also, even the Rockies have six wins at home (and a two-game winning streak, be still my heart). That challenge got a little trickier after falling behind 1-0 and 3-1 in this one.
But the Cubs offense kicked it in gear. Then the Cubs bullpen kicked in and faced 12 batters and recorded 11 outs. They didn’t get anywhere near their “A” relievers either. Though rubber-armed Caleb Thielbar recorded five outs and newly reinvented “crafty” Ryan Pressly closed it out. Also, consider in your heart forgiving Pressly if you haven’t yet. April 1 to present, he has pitched in 21 games, allowed 10 runs and eight earned. And all but one unearned run occurred in one horrific inning. With that horrific inning, he came into Tuesday’s game with a 3.08 FIP over that stretch.
Kyle Tucker didn’t play, seven Cubs had hits. This was a team effort. I understand every Cub fan who is skeptical about a Cub injury. It has felt like they’ve strangely handled almost every injury going back years. But, regardless of the severity of the injury, after acknowledging that most of the starters need a day off, it would have been insane not to grab the second off day for a guy who is banged up. He’s hit lefties so well that it didn’t scream for him to see his off day against the lefty. He’s actually been the second most productive hitter against lefties, so you’d probably prefer his day off against a righty where Michael Busch adds significantly to the depth of the lineup.
The offense put together nine hits, five walks, stole three bases (in three attempts) and had three sacrifice flies. The Cubs’ 5-6-7 hitters combined for seven runs batted in. It was a deep and potent attack. This team continues to find ways to win. They are doing so at such an impressive rate that the Cardinals and Brewers, who have both played well the last month or so, are having trouble staying in the rear view mirror.
I don’t want to do it often, because no one’s bar should be one of the best and most cherished teams in franchise history, but this team is now only four games behind the pace of the 2016 Cubs. If this team goes 14-13 over the next 27 games, I will not be able to stop the momentum of those comparisons and neither will anyone else. Also, I’ll be surprised if this team isn’t 14-13 over its next 27. Every surprise for me so far this season (outside of an individual game result) has been to the upside.
I love that I had one of the highest win total projections around here of the vocal people, said early that this team was special and still this team has overshot every realistic projection I’ve had. If this is a dream, I never want to wake up. I certainly have not been this euphoric since 2016.
Pitch Counts:
Cubs: 116 pitches, 34 BF
Nationals: 176 pitches, 42 BF
The Cubs pitching was ruthlessly efficient. Cade Horton did not run up a lot of pitches. The results weren’t quite there. Also, the Cubs have won the first five appearances of his career. Fun stat. The Cubs used three relievers, one for five outs, and all of them are freely available for the remainder of this series. This section has been somewhat extraneous given the large quantity of off days to this point. This section takes on monumental importance right now as this is the first of 13 straight, starting with nine on the road. One blown-up game over the next two weeks could ripple outwards.
The Cubs offense was ruthless period. They just missed the symbolic goal of 20 pitches per inning. Trevor Williams didn’t survive the fifth inning and threw 76 pitches. Three Nationals relievers threw 20 or more pitches with a high of 29 for Zach Brzykcy who did get through two innings. Four of them threw 18 or more and five relievers pitched in all. They’ll have to balance workload tomorrow or have their own risk of getting sideways. Any time a team is off Monday and starts a series Tuesday, they know they’re playing six straight days. They are falling out of any shot of contention, but on June 4, very few teams will look you in the eye and say they are already playing for the future.
Three Stars:
This was Michael Busch’s day. Yeah, Sunday really was too. At least on the offensive side of things. So he’s getting hot again. He had three hits and a walk in this one. He had a triple early to help get the offense ignited then bounced back later for a homer. He scored two and drove in three.
Caleb Thielbar came in with two on and one out in the sixth with the Nationals threatening to get back into it despite being down four. He got out of the inning with a double play. Caleb then came back and had another inning of work after the Cubs extended the lead further.
Pete Crow-Armstrong was a menace again. His one hit was a double. He also drew two walks, suddenly taking his walks. That’s now four walks over his last three games. His walk rate is right back in line with his short career numbers. A number quite a bit lower than you want ideally. But, just a hint of patience will make him all the more lethal. He also stole two bases and scored two runs. If you somehow haven’t seen the highlight, bounce over to Al’s recap and see him pretty literally steal a run with heads up baserunning as well. That was after he stole third.
Game 60, June 3: Cubs 8, Nationals 3 (38-22)
Fangraphs
Reminder: Heroes and Goats are determined by WPA scores and are in no way subjective.
THREE HEROES:
Superhero: Michael Busch (.330). 3-4, HR, 3B, BB, 3 RBI, 2 R
Hero: Caleb Thielbar (.108). 1⅔ IP, 5 BF, H, K
Sidekick: Pete Crow-Armstrong (.095). 1-3, 2B, 2 BB, 2 R, 2 SB
THREE GOATS:
Billy Goat: Cade Horton (-.146). 5⅓ IP, 22 BF, 6 H, BB, 3 ER, 3 K (W 3-0)
Goat: Dansby Swanson (-.107). 0-3, 2 SF, 2 RBI
Kid: Seiya Suzuki (-.055). 0-4, SF, RBI
WPA Play of the Game: Nico Hoerner continues to deliver with runners in scoring position. He had a two-run single with the bases loaded and two outs in the fifth to extend the Cubs lead to four. (.129)
384 batters have at least one homer this year. Nico Hoerner is not one of them. He has 15 more RBI than the closest other player with no homers. He has six more driven in than anyone with one homer. Six more than anyone with two. you have to get to Michael Harris at 3/33 to find the first player with a larger disparity than Hoerner’s 26 more RBI than homer (among non-sluggers).
*Nationals Play of the Game: Dayle Lile batted with a runner on first and no outs in the third. The ball was hit to Michael Busch who couldn’t knock it down, resulting in a double. (.115)
Cubs Player of the Game:
Poll
Who was the Cubs Player of the Game?
0%
Pete Crow-Armstrong
(0 votes)
0%
Someone else (leave your suggestion in the comments)
(0 votes)
0 votes total
Sunday’s Winner: Jameson Taillon with 157 of 359 votes (Busch received 127)
Rizzo Award Standings: (Top 5/Bottom 5)
The award is named for Anthony Rizzo, who finished first in this category three of the first four years it was in existence and four times overall. He also recorded the highest season total ever at +65.5. The point scale is three points for a Superhero down to negative three points for a Billy Goat.
Kyle Tucker +20
Jameson Taillon +12
Shōta Imanaga/Drew Pomeranz/Miguel Amaya +11
Jon Berti -7
Seiya Suzuki -8.5
Ben Brown -11
Julian Merryweather -15
Dansby Swanson -20.33
Up Next: Game two of the three-game set in Washington. Matthew Boyd (5-2, 3.08, 61⅓ IP) makes his 12th start for the Cubs. In five May starts, he was 3-0 with a 3.54 in 28 innings of work. He’s yet to win away from Wrigley Field. The team is 5-0 in his home starts and 1-5 when Boyd starts on the road, though he does have a 3.73 ERA on the road.
26-year-old lefty MacKenzie Gore (2-5, 3.16, 68⅓ IP) makes his 13th start for the Nationals this year. It’ll be the 85th start (88th appearance) for the former third overall pick by the Padres in 2017. In five May starts, he was 0-2 with a 2.63 ERA in 27⅓ innings. That’s a pretty brightly flashing light saying that his results are the result of poor run support. He threw six shutout innings in his last start against a potent Mariners team and didn’t win. He’s been better at home (2.64 ERA). He allowed one run over seven at Wrigley last September and was the winning pitcher.
Wednesday’s mountain is a littler higher than Tuesday’s. Let’s see if the Cubs can climb it.