(Via Fangraphs.com) Top Play (WPA): There was something weird in the air Monday at Wrigley, as the Cubs returned home to face the Reds. Maybe it was the come down off of Sunday’s no-hitter/pajama party, maybe it was the full moon, or (more likely) it was just a funky baseball game, but nothing really seemed to […]
Tag: Recap
GAME 129 RECAP: CUBS 2 DODGERS 0 (hits)
Top Play (WPA): Part of the beauty of baseball is that the determining play can come at any moment in the game, even the very first inning. Few other sports hold such criticality during the opening moments of the contest. Kris Bryant was not the story tonight, of that there is no doubt. What he did […]
GAME 128 RECAP: DODGERS 5 CUBS 2
Top Play (WPA): The Cubs came into this game on a three-game losing streak, but with Jon Lester on the mound, it was easy to feel good about the team’s chances in this one. Lester, prior to the seventh inning, had justified the optimism of most by pitching extremely well en route to allowing only […]
Game 126 Recap: Giants 9 Cubs 1
Top Play (WPA): Marlon Byrd’s three-run homer in the third inning off of Dan Haren was the top WPA play of the game (.226). It gave the Giants a 5-1 lead at the time, which was more than safe with Madison Bumgarner on the mound. After allowing an RBI double to the heating up Starlin Castro early, […]
Game 125: Giants 4, Cubs 2
Top Play (WPA): This was one of those games in which the first inning is played in a certain style… and then the rest of the game is a complete departure from that style. In this one, some weird defensive miscues and some close calls led to our top play. Leadoff man Kyle Schwarber popped […]
Game 124 Recap: Cubs 8 Giants 5
Top Play (WPA): The top play of this mostly very fun night came when Kyle Schwarber did this to a baseball (.306): This three-run homer in the third inning off of Matt Cain gave the Cubs a lead that they would never relinquish. Coming into tonight, Schwarber had been 3 for his last 26, including a four-strikeout […]
Game 123 Recap: Cubs 2 Indians 1
Top Play (WPA): You know what it is! Kris Bryant’s second walkoff home run of the year (and first that I didn’t attend in person) sent the Cubs home happy (+0.469). After Jon Lester barely missed a Maddux (complete game shutout, less than 100 pitches), the mood at Wrigley was somewhat dark. Chris Coghlan and Anthony Rizzo had […]
Game 122 Recap: Cubs 9 Braves 3
Top Play (WPA): The Cubs jumped all over Braves starter Matthew Wisler, and in doing so got out the brooms for their four-game sweep. After Dexter Fowler led off the bottom half of the first with a homer to left field to make the score 1-0, Kris Bryant cranked one out to right field, with […]
Game 121 Recap: Cubs 9 Braves 7
Top Play (WPA): Miguel Montero has earned a reputation among Cubs fans—deservedly so—for his hard-nosed play, his Twitter glories, and his #OppoPop. The last of these was on fine display today, as he untied the game in the seventh inning with a blast to left field that barely made it into the basket (+.281). That brought the Cubs […]
GAME 120 RECAP: CUBS 5 BRAVES 3
Top Play (WPA): The Cubs, having failed to plate the tying run in the fifth inning, came to bat in the sixth looking to even the score. You had to feel good about their chances, too, given that the near-lethal combination of Chris Coghlan, Anthony Rizzo, and Kris Bryant were all due up. Coghlan began […]