It was close for quite a while… and then it wasn’t.
Reminder: Thomas Smith is on vacation and will return next Monday to cover the final game of the White Sox series.
As the great Sarah Langs might say… Wheeeeee! (Not in a good way for the Cubs, though.)
Fangraphs
The Cubs had as much as an 80.5 percent chance of winning this game in the sixth inning, and then… well, you know what happened.
THREE HEROES:
Superhero: Cade Horton (.301). 5⅔ IP, 2 H, 0 R, 4 K
Hero: Nico Hoerner (.082). 2-for-4
Sidekick: Caleb Thielbar (.061). ⅓ IP, K
THREE GOATS:
Billy Goat: Ryan Pressly (-.350). IP, BB, HR, 2 R
Goat: Drew Pomeranz (-.210). ⅓ IP, 3 H, BB, HR, 3 R
Kid: Kyle Tucker (-.142). 0-for-3, K
A rare bullpen meltdown shows clearly in this game’s WPA scores.
Cubs Player of the Game:
Up next: The Cubs open a series against the Royals at Wrigley Field this evening. Ryan Brasier will be the opener, and Ben Brown is expected to be recalled from Triple-A Iowa to be the “bulk guy.” Brown last pitched eight days ago for Iowa, July 13, and threw five shutout innings with five strikeouts.