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Tyler Chatwood steps up, leads Chicago Cubs to a much-needed win
Looking to avoid a sweep to open a nine-game road trip, the Chicago Cubs turned to Tyler Chatwood, who made an emergency start for an ill Jon Lester.
Hours before Wednesday’s series finale against the San Francisco Giants, the Chicago Cubs still hadn’t released their lineup. Had someone been traded? Did the team finally land a big fish for the stretch run? Nope – instead of some exciting deadline action, we got the word: Jon Lester was scratched from his start due to illness.
Now, Lester might not be the guy he was in his prime, but as the Cubs, when you need a win – and make no mistake, the team definitely needed a win on Wednesday, he’s the guy you want to hand the ball to. Instead, right-hander, Tyler Chatwood took the mound looking to salvage the finale for Joe Maddon‘s squad.
And salvage he did. Chatwood turned in four innings of one-run ball for the Cubs, striking out five and walking just one. While he didn’t do enough to get the win personally, he did help spell a bullpen that worked hard the night before, in a 13-inning loss at Oracle Park.
Chicago Cubs: A day of obstacles for the club
As if Lester’s illness weren’t enough, the team optioned beleaguered shortstop Addison Russell to Triple-A Iowa before the contest in order to make room for catcher Willson Contreras, who returned from the IL.
Couple that with the fact that Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo departed the game within minutes of one another in the fifth and you can see the type of ballgame this could have been for Chicago. Rizzo was ejected by home plate umpire Jordan Baker for arguing balls and strikes.
Bryant, meanwhile, tweaked a knee in the cage during the game and left for precautionary reasons – but not before blasting a two-run shot off Giants starter Tyler Beede in the third.
“With everything that had been going on — sending Addison out, Jonny being ill, Rizzo getting kicked out, K.B. having to come out of the game — you get on an airplane and not winning that game, that’s where the dialogue becomes fabricated in a negative way,” Maddon told MLB.com after the game. “It’s very difficult to control that. You try to but it is. Now we can get on the airplane, get on back home, have a day off, and regroup a bit.”
Chicago Cubs: Offense, pitching finally on the same page in this one
After Chatwood departed in the fifth, the Cubs bullpen did not allow the Giants to score – with Kyle Ryan, Rowan Wick, Pedro Strop and Brandon Kintzler bridging the gap to closer Craig Kimbrel, who nailed down his seventh save of the season.
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What stood out there, though, was the order in which these guys were utilized by Maddon. Strop, who has struggled lately, entered in the seventh – while Kintzler took the eighth, the frame historically handled by Strop.
There’s little doubt his struggles of late prompted the move – and, although Strop turned in a scoreless frame, his velocity was still way down from where we’ve seen it in the past.
As for the bats, the long-ball gave the Cubs what they needed Wednesday. As I mentioned, Bryant blasted a two-run shot in the third – but that wasn’t the team’s first homer of the day. Javier Baez got things started in the top of the first with a solo blast to left-center, his 25th homer of the season.
After the Giants had pulled within two at 3-1 in the bottom of the third, Albert Almora hit a solo shot to left to add to the Cubs’ lead – capping the scoring for the day with his 10th homer of the year.
Chicago now boasts seven players on the Major League roster with at least 10 home runs – and David Bote will likely eclipse that before it’s all said and done, as well – as he has nine on the year. As a team, the Cubs ranks third in the National League with 160 home runs – trailing the Los Angeles Dodgers and Milwaukee Brewers.
Next. Five moves the Cubs have to make in order to win. dark
What’s Next?
The Cubs get an off-day Thursday before opening a three-game set against the rival Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park. Chicago is clinging to a slim half-game edge over the second-place St. Louis Cardinals with Milwaukee just two games out in the NL Central.