Brewers 4, Cubs 3: Bring on the robot umpires
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Photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images
We will, of course, never know what might have happened to Jake Marisnick’s pinch-hit at-bat in the ninth inning if plate umpire Cory Blaser had made the right call on Josh Hader’s first pitch to Marisnick.
But seriously, Cory Blaser,
pitch 1 was not a strike, not even close:
Hader had just walked Nico Hoerner to start the inning. If he throws ball 1 to Marisnick. well, maybe the at-bat, maybe the inning goes differently.
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The automated strike zone cannot come soon enough for me. Marisnick eventually struck out, Hader retired the next two hitters and the Cubs had a tough-to-take 4-3 loss to the Brewers.
Cubs 15, Brewers 2: Jake Marisnick has himself a day, and so does the rest of the offense
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Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports
Didn’t I tell you that this team would start hitting? That they couldn’t possibly be as bad as they looked for the first two weeks of the season?
After losing to the Braves 5-2 a week ago, the Cubs were 5-8 with a run differential of -25.
Since then? They’ve scored at least 13 runs three times and gone 5-1 with a run differential of +28. So that’s completely wiped out the negative run differential of a week ago, and then some, and with the 15-2 drubbing of the Brewers Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field, their fourth consecutive victory, the Cubs are back over .500 for the first time since they were 4-3 on April 8. They also moved to within one game of the first-place Brewers with this win.
Cubs 16, Mets 4: The offense explodes
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Seventeen games into what has not started out as a good season for the Chicago Cubs, we saw a glimpse of the offensive prowess this team can produce, helped along by some bad pitching and questionable defense by the New York Mets.
The Cubs smashed the Mets 16-4 on yet another frigid night at Wrigley Field and the offense was varied enough that the North Siders scored their first 10 runs without hitting a home run.
Things didn’t start out that way. Francisco Lindor hit Zach Davies’ sixth pitch of the game into the right-field bleachers for a 1-0 Mets lead. The Mets pushed across another run in the third on an RBI single by J.D. Davis off Davies. Meanwhile, David Peterson held the Cubs hitless through three, allowing just a leadoff walk in the second by Anthony Rizzo.
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You might recall that the recap of Wednesday’s 7-0 loss to the Brewers was headlined “Déjà vu.” That’s because it felt just like so many other Cubs losses this year.
The Cubs’ 5-2 loss to the Braves on a sunny but chilly Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field was basically same old, same old, thus I decided on the headline you see here, which was at one time credited to Hall of Famer Yogi Berra as one of his aphorisms.
You’re tired of reading the same old game recap, I’m sure, and I can tell you I am good and sick of writing them.
Cubs 4, Pirates 2: Javy Baez makes his pitch to play the Masters
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Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
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The Masters golf tournament began Thursday and that’s about as “golfy” a baseball swing as you’ll ever see that resulted in a home run:
0.86 ft above the ground!
Tied for the 6th-lowest HR pitch in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008) https://t.co/HGE81uhdvw Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) April 8, 2021
Javy Baez #RussCast of a pitch that damn near hit the ground.
Estimated distance: 367 feet
Javier Báez homers (2): fly ball to LF (2-run)
Hit: 367ft, 99mph, 33°