This infuriating game started ominously, with walking periodontal testimonial John Lackey throwing 26 pitches in the first inning and allowing a run to the ageless Ichiro Suzuki on the classic walk/stolen base/single/sac fly combination. The Cubs made us think everyone would be OK as they pulled ahead 4-1 on homers by Miguel Montero and Addison Russell, but they couldn’t hold the lead: Lackey wasn’t on top of his game, allowing seven (ouch) earned runs over 4 1/3 innings. The fifth inning was especially agonizing, with a Russell error (again, Ichiro! I curse you!) opening the floodgates as the Marlins scored four to go ahead 7-3.
Oh well, tomorrow/another day/blah blah. Grrrrr.
Top Play (WPA): The big play was a three-run bomb Russell (+.292), but the credit also goes to Willson Contreras. (Is there anything not to love about that guy—except maybe the route he took on Giancarlo Stanton’s double to left in the seventh inning? He didn’t homer today and only had one RBI—obligatory “you gotta trade dat guy for a pitcher, Epstink!” ref—but he made a key play in the third inning that turned the game around and seemed to pave the way for a win. The score was tied 1-1, and Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo gave Clemens two easy outs on two consecutive pitches. Up came Contreras, who worked a seven-pitch walk. A clearly rattled Paul Clemens then hit Baez on the second pitch, then gave up Russell’s left-field slamma-jamma. So you could almost say Contreras hit the homer, pretty much.
Bottom Play (WPA): Justin Bour is apparently still mad at the Cubs for drafting him in 2009 and then letting the Marlins take him via Rule 5 in 2013. He has seven RBIs in his last two games against the Cubs, and in the fourth inning the hulking revenge machine squared up a Lackey meatball and cranked a two-run homer into the right-field upper deck (-.184). It came after Lackey had already walked Destroyer Of Baseballs Giancarlo Stanton, one of the three walks he gave up today.
Key Moment: With the Cubs up 4-3 in the fifth, Ichiro hit a fairly routine grounder to Russell’s right. He picked it cleanly but made a low throw that got by Anthony Rizzo at first base. It rolled into the Cubs dugout and brought Ichiro to second, where he scored on a double by Martin Prado. Suddenly the game was tied, and by the end of the inning it was 7-4.
Trend to Watch: Bryant doubled to right center in the first inning, then just missed a homer to right in the fourth. As you can see from his spray chart, Bryant has exactly zero homers to right this season. But if he can start going the other way with power, well… that’d be awesome.
Kris Bryant’s 2016 spray chart. See those black dots? Those are homers — with none in right field.
There were a few bad things that we’ve seen lately that are a little troubling—after giving up only eight runs in his previous seven starts, Lackey has given up 10 runs in his last two starts. Also, for the second straight game, a Russell error paved the way to a big Marlins inning. When I was an ink-stained wretch, we always repeated “you need three to make a trend.” So these two examples aren’t “trends,” but if they happen again look for some serious Hot Takes coming your way.
Coming Next: The Cubs face Marlins ace Jose Fernandez tomorrow, who has clearly recovered from his 2014 Tommy John surgery: He’s allowed seven runs over his last eight starts, and he has a ridiculous 125 K’s in 87.2 innings (for an absurd 12.8 K/9 rate). Gulp. Jason Hammel will take the ball for the Cubs tomorrow at 12:10 CT.
Lead photo courtesy Steve Mitchell—USA Today Sports