Like a wasted youth that is recaptured later in life and made up for, the Cubs let several chances go by them in the first half of today’s game, only to ultimately push across three runs and complete their tenth sweep of the season. They won almost with a yawn and a dismissive flip of the hand at the Oakland Athletics before leaving for their return to Chicago.
There were many scoring chances for the Cubs today that they didn’t capitalize on, but the excellent work of Kyle Hendricks and the defense behind him allowed the squandered opportunities to be forgiven.
So if there’s a negative to be found in the second straight sweep and seventh win in a row, it’s that, but while sitting 11.5 games ahead in the division, looking for negatives looks silly.
Top Play (WPA): The top two moments came on solo home runs in the sixth and seventh innings, so this is really a matter of which one came first, which means it was Kris Bryant’s 6th inning lead off home run to break the scoreless tie (+.174). Bryant sent the first pitch he saw, a 90 mile per hour fastball, deep to left field to wrestle Sean Manaea’s grip from the offense and eventually open up further scoring.
Bottom Play (WPA): It’s probably trivial to be bothered by things like this, but Kyle Hendricks losing his shutout on a solo home run in the eighth is a little bit maddening. Hendricks had utterly controlled the Athletics batters by giving them the opposite of what they seemed to be expecting most of the time, but with an out in the eighth inning and behind in the count, Hendricks threw Marcus Semien a 3-1 slider and lost it to the seats in left center (-.057). Oakland had just four hits in the entire game and never moved a runner into scoring position, so the home run here sort of feels like a very mild blemish on an otherwise perfect piece of work.
Key Moment: The Cubs were locked in a scoreless battle through five innings and, despite several scoring chances in those early innings, had not shown much promise that they’d solve Sean Manaea.
But on the very first pitch of the sixth inning, Kris Bryant connected for his first home run since July 27 and just his second since July 5. The shot to left broke the scoring drought and would be the first of three runs the Cubs would score today.
Trend to Watch: The days of rest during not only last month’s All-Star break but also the weeks that have followed sure seem to have galvanized a team that had at one point seen their divisional lead drop to five and a half games over the Cardinals. The Cubs and Cardinals play four games at Wrigley starting on Thursday, and while right now these are two teams moving in very opposite directions, a four-game series provides a lot of opportunity for a sizable shift in the standings.
Jorge Soler remained solid at the plate today, adding another homer this afternoon. Soler had a single and struck out as well, though the called third strike was questionable. The question for Soler will be where he finds at-bats now that the designated hitter spot won’t be an option on the upcoming homestand.
Coming Next: The Cubs return to Chicago and have a day off on Monday before welcoming the Angels, against whom they opened the season with a pair of wins in Anaheim. It’s another two-game set, and John Lackey (8-7, 3.70) will take the ball against Jered Weaver (8-8, 5.11) in the first game. First pitch is at 7:05 CT on Tuesday, and the game will be aired on WGN and 670 AM.
Lead photo courtesy Kelley L Cox—USA Today Sports