Chicago Cubs win big as Yu Darvish continues to improve

The Chicago Cubs bested the Miami Marlins 7-2 on Jackie Robinson Day behind a strong outing from starting pitcher Yu Darvish.

One of the biggest questions coming into this season was how Chicago Cubs Yu Darvish would bounce back after an injury-filled 2018. So far in 2019 Yu has not been great, but little by little he has shown improvement in each of his starts, and that was the case tonight.

Darvish went 5 2/3 innings allowing two earned runs and eight strikeouts. This is only Darvish’s second win of his career in a Cubs uniform and arguably the best start of his career as a Cub.

Darvish didn’t have the best command of his pitches throughout the night as he still issued four walks in his 5 2/3 innings, but he made big pitches when he needed to. Darvish got himself into jams in the first, second, and the fifth inning. In the first and second inning, Darvish had the bases loaded and two outs and got two big strikeouts to get himself out of trouble.  Darvish did surrender and solo home run to the Marlins back up catcher Chad Wallach. 

Another positive note for Darvish was his velocity in the sixth inning as he was getting his fastball up to 98-99 mph. It will be interesting to see if he can keep that up.  With a fastball like that and a wipeout slider, he has what could be a deadly combination.

The Cubs offense got off to a swift start as they tallied three runs in the first off of Marlins starting pitcher Trevor Richards. The Cubs loaded the bases with two out and then scored their first run after Willson Contreras drew a walk forcing in a run.

David Bote knocked in two runs after hitting a double to left field. Cubs shortstop Javier Baez also had three hits as the offense continued its hot streak.  One of the Chicago Cubs hottest hitters, Contreras continues to do damage as he hit his sixth home run of the year off of Marlins relief pitcher, Drew Steckenrider.

The Cubs bullpen continued to take strides in the right direction as they didn’t allow a run all night in 3 1/3 innings of work. Kyle Ryan, Steve Cishek and Tim Collins all pitched in the blow out win.

The Cubs and Marlins are back in action tonight as left-hander Jose Quintana (1-1, 5.14) will take the mound for the Cubs against right-hander Pablo Lopez (1-2, 6.60) for the Marlins.