Hey, that’s a nice win against a good team. I’ll take it, I’ll take it.
With the wind blowing in and temperatures down into the 30s, it was not a great night to hit. You could tell that the ball wasn’t going to carry, in general, and most of the hitters had trouble elevating anyway. Jake Arrieta took advantage and leaned heavily on his sinker, mixing in a lot more changeups to the lefties later on in his solid five-inning appearance. It was probably the best he’s looked here in the regular season so far this year.
The Cubs managed their three runs on a gift error from the Mets, some great baserunning by Jason Heyward (and an Eric Sogard single), and then a bases-loaded walk that deserved a bat flip:
Willson Contreras’ two-out, RBI, bat-flipped walk … in April. #Cubs
(🎥: @WatchMarquee) pic.twitter.com/zgUQ24Zm7v
— Michael Cerami (@Michael_Cerami) April 21, 2021
There wasn’t much else to speak of offensively for the Cubs, with Javy Báez striking out four times and Joc Pederson striking out three times. When they hit back-to-back in the middle of the order, whoo baby, right now, it can make for some tough watching.
That left the game pretty tight throughout, though, and the Cubs got excellent relief performances to make it stand up. The most drama came in the 9th when a couple Craig Kimbrel walks and a single loaded the bases with just one out. But Kimbrel struck out Brandon Nimmo and got a Francisco Lindor grounder to end it.
