This one was a five hour barrel of laughs, let me tell you.
Top Play (WPA): Here’s the cool news: Kris Bryant homered again (+.054). It was a solo shot off Mets starter Jacob deGrom in the fourth inning, and it broke up the no-hitter that the talented right-hander was spinning at the time. The velocity was down for deGrom earlier this season, and it’s still not back to where it was last year when he was hitting 96 and 97 mph on the fastball, but tonight he was sitting at 95 and making Cubs batters look silly at the plate.
Bottom Play (WPA): If I weren’t limited to the technical bottom play, according to WPA, it would be hard to choose from this treasure trove of bottom plays. In this case, it wasn’t the back-to-back home runs by James Loney and Asdrubal Cabrera in the second inning, the monster blasts by Brandon Nimmo or Yoenis Cespedes, Cabrera’s second home run of the night, Joe Maddon allowing relief pitcher Trevor Cahill to bat with two on and one out in the ninth inning while trailing by eight runs, or any of the three rain delays we were privileged to. No, in this case the actual bottom play was a double off the bat of Loney—yes, the Mets did in fact collect hits that were not home runs—that drove in Neil Walker and Cespedes to make the score 4-0 (-.128).
Cubs’ starter Jason Hammel struggled in this game, surrendering two runs before a rain delay stopped the game in the top of the third inning. He came back out after the delay, and the woes would only continue. He finished the evening with four innings, 10 earned runs, and five homers allowed. And for those already jumping on the “Second-Half Hammel” watch, this game was still technically in the first half of the season.
Key Moment: The key moment in this game was a decision made by the opposing manager: sending deGrom back out after a rain delay slightly longer than an hour. While some speculated that it might be a delay long enough to knock out the Mets starter, there was no such luck for the Cubs tonight. His night did end a bit early after five innings, three hits, one run, and seven strikeouts after the game went into the third rain delay in the top of the sixth inning, but at that point the Mets were up 10-1, and the game had already been decided.
Trend to Watch: The bullpen ERA rising. Checking the splits, month by month, the Cubs bullpen has gotten progressively worse since the beginning of the season. They posted a collective 2.72 ERA and 11.2 K/9 in 53 innings in April, but the ERA jumped to 3.80 in May while the K/9 dropped to 8.9. The ‘pen finished June with a 3.96 ERA and just 8.5 K/9, and with the trade deadline looming at the end of July, Theo Epstein and the front office will have some decisions to make about who they can rely on down the stretch and how many extra arms they need to go get.
Coming Next: The Cubs continue their four-game set with the Mets tomorrow with the marquee matchup of the series: the Cubs’ Jake Arrieta (2.10 ERA/2.80 FIP/3.26 DRA) versus the Mets’ Bartolo Colon (2.86/3.72/4.86). It’s been an up-and-down road trip, with the record so far sitting at 4-5. Once the Cubs finish up in New York they’ll get to return to Chicago for four games—three against the Cincinnati Reds and a makeup game against the Atlanta Braves. Tomorrow’s tilt with the Mets begins at 6:15pm CST and will air on FOX.
Lead photo courtesy Brad Penner—USA Today Sports