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Game 131 Recap: Cubs 5 Reds 4

Top Play (WPA): This game never quite looked as rough as it probably felt for most Cubs fans, but I think that has a lot to do with losing five of their last six and the hangover from the 13-6 beatdown in the first game of this series.

But the Cubs kept it fairly close, never trailing by more than two runs. And with two outs and the score 4-3 in favor of the Reds, Dexter Fowler smoked a solid single into right field in the bottom of the seventh inning. Kyle Schwarber worked a 3-1 count before taking what appeared to be ball four, but was called strike two by the homeplate umpire. After fouling off another pitch, Schwarber crushed a two-run homer to left-center field (.494) to put the Cubs in front 5-4.

schwarber homer

The red square represents the called second strike, which would’ve put Schwarber on first base had it been called correctly. Who needs robot umpires, am I right? Not a single true strike was thrown to Schwarber in this at-bat, and he still ended up drilling one into the bleachers. You can see the location of the homer as represented by the light blue square just low of the zone, but you can get a better look at the majesty of the Fast Hulk here:

Bottom Play (WPA): The Cubs trailed 3-1 in the bottom of the sixth inning before Kris Bryant’s two-out single brought home Schwarber and Miguel Montero’s single to center brought Chris Coghlan in to tie things up at three apiece. With runners on first and third, Javier Baez quickly fell behind 0-2 and ended up squibbing a little grounder down the first base line that was fielded by Tucker Barnhart, who threw out Baez at first base to end the inning (-.074).

Baez made his 2015 debut batting seventh and playing at second base. He had a fairly quiet night, going 0-for-4 with a strikeout, ground out, fly out, and a loud smash to deep center field that moved Montero from second to third base in the bottom of the eighth inning. All things considered, Baez didn’t do anything to make us cringe.

Key Moment: There was a moment, however brief, where anxiety got ramped up in the ninth inning. Hector Rondon came in to get the final three outs and started out by throwing three consecutive balls to Todd Frazier. He bounced back, eventually inducing a groundout to Baez at short. It was smooth sailing from there, with Rondon striking out Ivan De Jesus and Eugenio Suarez to nail down a Cubs victory and save number 25 on the season.

rondon horizontal speed

Rondon touched 100 mph on the fastball and still showed good movement on his pitches. He threw his fastballs for strikes and the hitters were unable to do much better than fouling them off. He threw his slider mostly out of the zone, but still fooled the hitters into swinging at pitches they could do nothing with.

Trend to Watch: The bullpen needs a boost, and so far not much the Cubs have done has helped. They’ve had to DFA Rafael Soriano, Edwin Jackson, Phil Coke, Brian Schlitter, Gonzalez German, and Donn Roach. A constant array of mediocre pitchers have shuttled between Iowa and Chicago this summer. Despite a June that saw the Cubs bullpen put up a 1.63 ERA in 94 innings pitched, the Cubs ‘pen has been pretty bad overall this season.

They’ve been forced to use a total of 19 different pitchers in relief. If you’ll allow me to make an unfair statement for nothing but shock value, the only pitchers that were available in the Cubs bullpen on Opening Night that are currently on the active roster are Pedro Strop and Hector Rondon. Take a look at what the bullpen has done in the month of August:

cubs pen

The middle relief is where the biggest problem has been, bridging the gap between the starters and Strop and Rondon. The problem has become magnified by the inability of Jason Hammel, Kyle Hendricks, and Dan Haren to consistently pitch beyond the fifth inning. In retrospect, not being able to land a better starting pitcher than Haren could really hurt the Cubs down the stretch if these guys can’t start pitching deeper into games.

Coming Next: The Cubs (75-56) and Reds (54-77) will turn around and play a 1:20pm game after the night game, with Hammel (3.42 ERA/3.63 FIP/4.04 DRA) facing Raisel Iglesias (3.92/3.39/3.64). The young Reds pitching prospect has been extra good lately, starting six games in the month of August and posting a 2.27 ERA in 39 2/3 innings pitched with 45 strikeouts and only 10 walks. Iglesias is a slender right-hander with a low-90s fastball and a solid breaking ball. He’s allowed only a .285 BABIP while striking out 9.7 per nine innings this season, so the Cubs have their work cut out for them as they try to go for the series win.

Lead photo courtesy of Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports

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