The Cubs SNAPPED their two-game losing streak, and SNAPPED their we-forgot-how-to-score-runs streak. And it was yet another shutout by Cubs pitching. Thank you, Pirates.
How about Kyle Schwarber, stepping up with two doubles – his first extra-base hits of the month – the night after he got benched?
That was the kind of Jon Lester start you’re gonna get every now and again these days: lots of contact, some of it kinda scary, but sometimes it finds gloves. Yes, Lester got a lot of help behind him tonight, but he also didn’t do much to help out the Pirates. Last time he was in this park, letting them hit it saw a whole bunch of balls fall in. This time, it worked out, in large part because he did a good job of keeping it on the ground.
Interesting that Jeremy Jeffress got the 8th inning because he was warming up for that inning when this was gonna be a save situation in the 9th, eh? I’m thinking Craig Kimbrel may have earned his old job back. We’ll see.
Obviously there’s a lot of concern coming out of this one, with Kris Bryant suffering an oblique issue. We’ll update that when there’s more information, but the tentative expectation is that we’ll probably see a lot of David Bote at third base the rest of the way (Bote, who drove in yet another two-out run).
Back to the brighter side …
