What a great, great win for the Cubs tonight (a much-needed win, too).
Willson Contreras homered, Anthony Rizzo hit a 2-RBI double and his first homer since May 2nd, Jason Heyward reached base three times, Patrick Wisdom homered again (and didn’t even strike out), and the Cubs ultimately scored 7 runs on 7 hits, including 5 for extra bases (with 3 HRs). With that win, the Cubs have given themselves a chance to take their second series of the year against the Padres (and a shot to pull this tough West Coast road trip up to 3-4 overall). I mean. Yes. That’s a WIN.
But despite all that legitimate goodness, the highlight of the night was undoubtedly Zach Davies.
The Cubs starter had an inauspicious start to the game with a couple of walks, some general wildness, and a TON of hard contact that just happened to find gloves at the right time. But he quickly reined it in and started absolutely DEALING mid-way through the second inning. After issuing his second walk of the game in the second, Davies went – in order! – soft flyout, soft flyout, groundout, strikeout, groundout, groundout, soft fly out, bloop single (the first Padres hit of the game), groundout, strikeout, strikeout, groundout, groundout, strikeout, flyout.
That’s seven straight outs, a bloop single, and then another seven straight outs. His final line read 6.0 IP, 1H, 2BB, 4Ks. And he did it with just 89 pitches. It was impressive, and more importantly, it was 6.0 full innings. That’s just the second time he’s gone that deep this season, saving the bullpen from another high-usage night. And given the way tomorrow’s starter, Jake Arrieta, has been pitching lately, that could be absolutely huge for the Cubs.
Ah, what a night. What a win. Go Cubs.
Oh! And, hey, Zach Davies …
