Cubs at Braves Series Recap

For those of you who have had the unfortunate circumstance of watching any or all of the games against the Braves this weekend, for your health and sanity it may be in your best interest to stop reading after this sentence. For those of you who missed out and wanted a quick recap of a lost weekend that included the demotion of Carlos Marmol, proceed at your own risk.

The individual game recaps can be accessed here: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

The Good

Jeff Samardzija continued his maturation process of becoming a bona fide rotation ace. On Sunday, he at one point had struck out 10 Braves in just four innings of work. To put that in to perspective, I believe Kerry Wood “only” had six or eight strikeouts through four frames in the famous 20 strikeout one hitter against the Astros. The Shark finished with a career high 13 Ks.

The Cubs offense actually showed up on Saturday, tallying a season high five runs on 13 hits. The highlights included homers by Anthony Rizzo and Luis Valbuena.

The Bad

Unfortunately Saturday was the only game in the series in which the Cubs really brought their lumber. The offense only managed single tallies in each of the other two games and their inability to blow open the Saturday evening game with a bases loaded no out chance was the first step of the self destruction that night.

April 7, 2013; Atlanta, GA, USA; Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Jeff Samardzija (29) pitches in the second inning against the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Shirey-USA TODAY Sports

The Ugly

Ugly is probably an understatement regarding Marmol and his rough start to the 2013 season. Rough is probably an understatement too. Kyuji Fujikawa also had an outing to forget. The Cubs went from at worst a .500 road trip to open the season to getting swept out of Atlanta.