This series was a reminder that nothing good has ever come out of the existence of the Miami Marlins.
Marlins Park is a giant boondoggle that has cost Miami-Dade County over $500 million. It’s a shame because they clearly could have saved a lot of money by not building an upper deck.
Jose Fernandez is one of the most dynamic and exciting pitchers in all of baseball. And on a day where he led his team to a series win over the team with the best record in MLB (Which, despite what you’re currently reading on #CubsTwitter, persistently refuses to stop being a fact), the Marlins couldn’t put a single fan in their home park’s top tier.
Maybe that’s because if someone buys an upper deck ticket, Jeffrey Loria immediately sues them.
With Fernandez facing Jason Hammel, it would have been really neat if this was one of those “Baseball gonna baseball” days where the slumping Cubs scored 8 runs out of nowhere off of one of the best pitchers in the game.
Alas, sometimes baseball goes exactly according to plan. Stupid baseball.
Top Play (WPA): After two innings of offering little resistance to Fernandez’s pure filth, the Cubs put together an impressive rally in the third. Down 1-0, Jason Hammel blooped a single into short right field and Ben Zobrist followed with a stellar at-bat that ended in a walk on a 3-2 pitch. Jason Heyward then hit a line shot off the bat to the left side of the infield, and before the WLS camera could cut away, the only suspense was whether it would result in a diving catch by the third baseman or the shortstop.
In what can only be described as a genuine baseball miracle in 2016, Heyward’s blistering drive actually landed for a base hit (+.074). Kris Bryant then followed it up with a game-tying sac fly to center on an at bat that was so beautiful, Jeffrey Loria would have traded it straight up for cash and a pink flamingo for his home run sculpture.
Bottom Play (WPA): When going up against Fernandez, every run feels like it could be the ballgame. And that was almost the case in the second inning when Hammel walked the scorching Justin Bour and Derek Dietrich followed with a ringing double to right center (-.126). Even with the Marlins pulling in their fences (“Marlins Park: Bringing the ugliness slightly closer!”), it’s still a giant outfield and third base coach Lenny Harris sent Bour to score the first run of the game.
Dusty Baker wants you to know that even with Harris as third base coach, he’d still pitch to Giancarlo Stanton to avoid facing him.
Key Moment: Hammel had wriggled out of jams in the fourth and fifth innings to keep the game tied. And in the sixth, it appeared he had done so again when Adeiny Hechavarria grounded into what looked like a 5-4-3 double play with runners on first and third and one out. However, Bryant had to hesitate on his throw to allow Zobrist to get to the bag, making the play uncomfortably slow-developing. Even so, Hechavarria was originally called out, and it looked as though the Cubs would head to the seventh still deadlocked.
Unfortunately, Don Mattingly still had his challenge and the replay showed pretty clearly that Hechavarria had beaten the throw to first and go-ahead run had scored. So the Key Moment in this one was that this game didn’t take place in 1965.
And if it had, the Marlins wouldn’t exist and the Cubs would’ve won by a 9-0 forfeit. Which is why so many old people think baseball was better in those days.
Trend to Watch: The second half is almost upon us, which means now is the time when we start watching Jason Hammel and wondering if each start will be the day he regresses to the mean. His numbers were pretty good today (6.0 IP 4H 2 R 2 ER 2 BB 3 K), but any one of the middle three innings could have easily gone off the rails. So even though he hasn’t showed his second half form yet, it still bears watching closely.
Up Next: The Cubs have mercifully finished their worst week of the year. Unfortunately, they still have seven games left on this road trip and travel to Cincinnati for three at GABP. Jake Arrieta (1.74 ERA/2.53 FIP/3.09 DRA) takes the hill against Cub-for-one-game Dan Straily (3.83/4.36/3.38) on Monday night at 6:10. It would be nice if baseball goes exactly according to plan on this night too.
Stupid, stupid baseball.
Lead photo courtesy Steve Mitchell—USA Today Sports