Recap: Fly It!
The L.A. Angels of Anaheim came into town today, making it former Cub Tommy LaStella’s first time being back since he was traded to the Angels last November. The Cubs honored him with a video tribute prior to the game, thanking him for his time with the team. While Mr. 3 a.m. wasn’t in the lineup, he did make an appearance as a pinch hitter. The at bat ended with him flying out to Almora.
Cubs pitching has had their ups and downs so far this season but like Q last night, Hamels showed us he really is worth his contract. The veteran lefty went a full 8 innings today, giving up just four hits, while striking out 8 and issuing not a single walk. He allowed just a single run- a homer off the bat of Pujols, who practically dug the pitch out of the dirt and golfed it out onto Waveland. Kintzler came in in the 9th to shut the Angels down. The Cubs have won 3 of their last 4 games, including their first back-to-back wins of the season.
The Angels sent lefty Tyler Skaggs to the mound today. We’ve seen it happen often enough last season and already this season where the Cubs offense has difficulty squaring up pitchers they haven’t seen before. This was not the case today. Cubs ambushed Skaggs in the bottom of the first and worked him so hard, he was out by the fifth. Almora was today’s leadoff hitter and though he got out fairly quickly, Bryant was able to send a groundball single into left. Rizzo came up next and jumped all over the first pitch he saw. The result was a homer crushed so hard to right that it nearly ended up on Sheffield, putting the Cubs up 2-0. Two batters later, Willson Contreras put the Cubs up 3-0 with a homer that actually did leave the park and possibly landed on Waveland, possibly landed on the moon. Even better was the fact that it was his first of 2 long balls on the day. In between Contreras’ two homers was a solo homer from David Bote in the 4th that put the Cubs up 4-1. Contreras’ second homer of the day came in the 6th and put the Cubs up 5-1, which is what the final score wound up being.
In total, 5 home run balls left Wrigley today. Fortunately, all but one came off Cubs bats. The Cubs look to go on their first winning streak of the season tomorrow when they send Kyle “The Professor” Hendricks to the mound to square off against fellow righty, Chris Stratton, which yours truly will be at to provide a first hand recap of.
