Yu Darvish made his third start of the season last night. If you weren’t able to watch the first two and were only able to draw conclusions about his performances by reading his final lines, you would be forgiven for being anxious for this start. Those of us watching and understanding what they were seeing, though, knew it was only a matter of time before we were flying the Double Yu.
When a pitcher takes an at bat even before he steps on the mound, you know the offense is doing something right. Such was the case last night. Zobrist lead things off by just missing a homer and instead flied out to the warning track where it was harmlessly hauled in. Bryant was next and reached first safely after being hit by a pitch. Like Zo, Rizzo also just missed a homer when he, too, flied out to the warning track, meaning everything that came next happened with 2 outs in the first. Javy slapped a long single into left field. Not long after, Marlins pitcher, Trevor Richard’s, decided to check on Bryant at second. He made it back to the bag in time but the throw bounced off him and into center field, allowing both Bryant and Baez to advance to second and third. With first base now open, Richard’s wasn’t about to challenge the Cubs hottest hitter, Jason Heyward. Indeed, Richard’s threw 4 pitches to Heyward and not a one of which were in the zone. Heyward didn’t offer at a one of them and took his base, loading them for Contreras. Contreras worked at great at bat and with the count full, managed to lay off a low pitch that came in just under the knees, drawing an RBI walk to put the Cubs up 1-0. Bote came up to bat next. He saw a few pitches in the zone and fouled them off. Then, with the bases loaded and the Cubs down to their last strike, Bote saw a pitch he liked, sent it into left-center, and drove in two with a double to put the Cubs up 3-0. With first base now open and the pitcher on deck, Almora was intentionally walked. Darvish would have a chance to help his own cause on offense even before he took the mound. While he would eventually strike out, the damage was done. The Cubs would go on to score more runs but the 3 they scored in the first would be all they needed for the win.
For the first time this season, Darvish’s teammates gave him a lead to keep intact. They also gave him some great defense when Almora made an incredible diving catch to rob leadoff hitter, Curtis Granderson, of at least a double, maybe a triple. Anderson came up to bat next and looked a little silly watching strike 3 go by, meaning, again, what came next happened with 2 outs. Former Cub Starlin Castro reached first safely on an infield hit. This was followed up with a single by Walker. A walk to Rojas loaded the bases and made every Cub fan watching just positive that Dean, a rookie only recently called up, was going to hit a go ahead grand slam. Thankfully, we were wrong. Dean went down swinging and the Marlins stranded 3.
After the first inning, Richard’s retired 9 straight. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Darvish. The Marlins got on the board in the second without the benefit of a hit. Back to back walks started off the inning. With 2 on and nobody out, Richards came up to bat. Off the bat, it looked like he hit into an easy double play. Unfortunately, a throwing error by Baez put Richards on first and Wallach, who lead off the inning and was on second, ended up scoring. The score was now 3-1. Darvish then got the next two batters to groundout.
Darvish had his first “1,2,3” inning in the bottom of the third but he wouldn’t be so lucky in the 4th. After striking out Dean for the second time, Darvish gave up a homer to Wallach, the Marlins only earned run of the night, putting the score at 3-2. The Marlins would not score again.
After sending 9 to the plate only to have them all return to the dugout without a hit, Cubs offense came roaring back to life in the top of the fifth. After Zobrist was robbed of at least 2 bases by Brinson (who came to Miami from Milwaukee in the Yelich trade/steal) Bryant hit a double down the left field line. Rizzo flied out to the warning track meaning, once again, what came next all went down with 2 outs. Baez hit a double to drive in KB, putting the Cubs up 4-2. He then took third on a throwing error. Heyward worked a walk and Contreras was hit by a pitch, meaning bases were loaded once again for Bote. Bote hit a slow roller to the shortstop who tossed the ball over to second for the force out on Contreras who was initially called out. Contreras is a better base runner than a lot of catchers, though, and the play was close enough that Joe challenged the call of out. The rules say there has to be clear and convincing evidence to overturn a call and that must have been what the officials saw upon review because the umps came out of their huddle calling Contreras safe at second. Javy came home on the play by Bote to put the Cubs up 5-2. After the out at second was overturned, Marlins manager, Don Mattingly came out to pull his starter and bring in the first relief pitcher of the night, righty Austin Brice. He got Almora to flyout to end the inning.
KB got hit by a pitch for the second time in the 6th and when Rizzo reached on a walk, there was a hope of tacking on more runs but the inning ended on a harmless flyout by Javy. The Cubs would score their final run of the night in the seventh when Contreras hit a solo blast out to center, his 6th of the season.
Darvish was one out away from pitching his first quality start of the season. He started off the 6th by striking out Dean for the third time and then got Wallach to ground out. His first pitch to Brinson was a 98 mph strike. His next pitch hit 99 on the gun but it also hit Brinson, ricocheted into Contreras, and then also hit the ump. All three were down for a second but eventually Brinson took his base and Maddon took Darvish out of the game. His final line was his best of the season. He went 5.2 innings, giving up 4 hits, 2 runs/2earned runs, and homer, while walking 4 and striking out 8. His ERA has fallen to 6.11.
Recent call up Kyle Ryan came in for Darvish and ended the inning. The Cubs bullpen pitched 3.1 scoreless innings with 5 strikeouts between them, making for a very drama free end of the game.
Cubs look to come within 2 games of .500 later tonight when Quintana takes the mound.
