The Cubs bounce back with a win over the Astros.
Tuesday night, the Cubs got just what the doctor ordered to get over their disappointing weekend series with the Marlins. The two best things you can get after a frustrating game are a good start from your starting pitcher. Check. And first inning runs. Aggressively check. Jordan Wicks gave the Cubs six strong innings against an under achieving but still loaded Astros team. Meanwhile, it took the Cubs three batters to put two runs on the board. Then four more batters to add three more runs.
Even when this Astros team is playing poorly, they are still a formidable bunch, loaded with talented guys with championship experience. So it feels a little aggressive to say that the Cubs coasted to victory, but that’s essentially what happened. But again, after the weekend they just had, a drama-less game was welcome. Unfortunately, the game wasn’t entirely without drama. There was Cody Bellinger being pulled out of the game with what was described as a rib contusion after an awkward looking play in the outfield. With Seiya Suzuki already on the injured list and Ian Happ playing through an injury of his own, the Cubs outfield depth is getting an early season challenge.
Before the game, Kyle Hendricks went to the injured list along with Drew Smyly. So the Cubs are dealing with a bevy of injuries. That is already three members of the opening day anticipated starting rotation hurt as well as those three outfielders. There have also been multiple injuries down in the bullpen. Someone quarantine the infielders and catchers before this spreads any further.
Kudos to these Cubs though. Despite all of the bumps, bruises, aches and pains, not to mention a fairly challenging early schedule, they are standing tall at 14-9. What a nice place to be where they are stacking that many wins and there is still an under-riding feeling that they could have had at least a few more. The Brewers have started even hotter than the Cubs, but a) I’m fine hanging out in drafting position and b) it’s way too early to worry about what anyone else is doing. Just pile up the wins and we’ll look around in a couple of months and see what it all means.
Let’s take a look at my three stars of the game.
- I’m almost always going to start with a strong pitching performance, but I see you Mike Tauchman. Mike has talked a ton about how his high on base percentage start to the season is a little disappointing. I’ve listened to him explaining that he was getting deep into counts because when he was getting his pitch, he wasn’t squaring it up. Well, he squared up two of them well enough for his first two homers of the season. His first was a three-run homer in the first that really gave the Cubs and early stranglehold on this game. The last capped the scoring in the eighth.
- I’m certainly not ignoring the very fine outing of Jordan Wicks. He completes the fifth quality start of the year for the Cubs, which was also just their fifth start of six innings of the year. The Cubs haven’t gotten much length out of their rotation. With Monday’s off day, the Cubs bullpen is in a pretty good place. They did use three different relievers to close it out. But they should have a fully stocked bullpen heading to Wednesday night’s game.
- The offense was fairly quiet for a 7-2 win, only managing six hits. So this was very much a sequencing driven offensive night. But that gives me a spot to recognize some good work from Yency Almonte. He faced four of them and retired them all, including inheriting two on and two outs. This is your annual reminder that launching a reliever into the sun after a bad outing or two can be a poor decision. Yency has really settled in and is adding some depth to a pen that is logging lot of innings.
Game 23, April 23: Cubs 7, Astros 2 (14-9)
Reminder: Heroes and Goats are determined by WPA scores and are in no way subjective.
THREE HEROES:
- Superhero: Mike Tauchman (.155). 2-3, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 2 R, BB, CS
- Hero: Jordan Wicks (.130). 6 IP, 23 batters, 5 H, 2 R, 4K (W 1-2)
- Sidekick: Cody Bellinger (.125). 1-3, HR, 2 RBI, R
THREE GOATS:
- Billy Goat: Michael Busch (-.034). 0-4
- Goat: Nico Hoerner (-.029). 0-5, RBI, SB
- Kid: Alexander Canario (-.003). 0-1
WPA Play of the Game: Mike Tauchman batted with runners at the corners and the Cubs up two in the first inning with two outs. He launched a home run and the Cubs had a 5-0 first inning lead. (.162)
*Astros Play of the Game: Jake Meyers hit a solo homer with two outs in the fifth inning to cut the Cubs lead to three, the closest the Astros were able to get. (.050)
Cubs Player of the Game:
Sunday’s Winner: Nico Hoerner nabbed 94 percemt of the votes for his strong game in the Sunday loss.
Rizzo Award Cumulative Standings: (Top 3/Bottom 3)
The award is named for Anthony Rizzo, who finished first in this category three of the first four years it was in existence and four times overall. He also recorded the highest season total ever at +65.5. The point scale is three points for a Superhero down to negative three points for a Billy Goat.
- Michael Busch +11
- Mark Leiter Jr. +9
- Ben Brown +6
- Christopher Morel/Miles Mastrobuoni -5
- Adbert Alzolay -7
- Kyle Hendricks -15
Up Next: Jameson Taillon (1-0, 1.80) takes the ball for game two of the series. Jameson is coming off of a fantastic season debut against the Marlins on Friday. He’ll look to stretch it to two in a row and build off of that. It might be a lot to ask as Taillon builds up his endurance, but it would be fantastic to get another strong start while the offense is a little banged up.
The Astros start Spencer Arrighetti (0-2, 11.57). The 24-year-old righty was a sixth-round pick for the Astros in 2021. He’s made two starts and gotten roughed up. Most of that happened in his first start back on April 10 when he faced the Royals in Kansas City and allowed seven runs over three innings. He had a bit of a bounceback with only two runs allowed in four innings against a potent Braves offense in a home start. Those were his first two major league starts, so he’s a little bit of an unknown. He was 19-15 with a 4.37 ERA over 63 games, 42 starts in his minor league career. He struck out 325 in just 253⅓ innings of work. So he is capable of being overpowering. He walked 123. That walks to innings ratio isn’t amazing, but the strikeouts to walks is outstanding. There are a myriad of issues that can effect a minor league pitcher with overwhelming stuff to drive up walk totals. In his seven innings of work, he’s allowed five walks while striking out eight.
Let’s give the kid a third loss before he gets his feet on the ground.