2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 4 - Bleed Cubbie Blue

So many times through the years we’ve watched a guy be jacked up and either over throw or in some way let the moment get to them. That was not the case for Shōta Imanaga. Shōta was clearly amped for this game. But, he was a guy that was razor sharp in this one. I won’t overstate. These Rockies will almost certainly be one of the worst teams in baseball. But even bad teams are filled with guys who are, will be or were stars at some point. You can get into trouble if you aren’t on top of your game against any team. This was as strong a debut as you will see. Two hits, no walks, nine strikeouts and no runs. He appeared to lose just a beat in his sixth inning of work and allowed those two hits. Certainly, you can understand that in an April start the first week of the season.

The Rockies were as advertised. Dakota Hudson didn’t look as sharp or dominant as Shōta. But there we were in the sixth inning with a scoreless game. It was clear Imanaga was done, so it looked like his strong performance would merely be a bullpen saver after a rough weekend for the rotation. But then Ian Happ had a strong another strong at bat that ended with a single. Ian has looked excellent at the plate in the early going. Maybe a couple of years late, he’s ready to ascend and take over the leadoff spot.

Seiya Suzuki followed with a single of his own and heading into the heart of the order, the Cubs had two on. But Cody Bellinger was retired without doing any damage. That brought up the other Cub who has been stringing together strong at bats in the early going. Christopher Morel hit a sharp grounder into left field. This was going to be a single and Ian Happ was taking an aggressive turn. Rockies left fielder Nolan Jones came in aggressively but didn’t keep his glove down. The ball not only got under his glove, but rolled all of the way out to the wall with Jones heading in the wrong direction.

It was a disaster for the Rockies. Seiya Suzuki was able to come around easily for the game’s second run but then Jones followed his fielding gaffe with a throwing error and Morel had the proverbial Little League homer. The Cubs were up 3-0. It wasn’t easy, but the Cubs would roll to a shutout victory. Two Cubs relievers closed it out and the Cubs had a second straight victory.

The Cubs did what you wanted to see them do. They faced a bad team and they took care of business. The defense was pretty good. The error on Morel early on was both a play he probably should have made and not obviously an error to me, for whatever that is worth. I think if I were scoring I’d have probably given it a hit and then had heartburn when Imanaga hadn’t yet allowed another by the sixth. The offense was good but not great. The pitching was dominant save for one inning. That’s usually going to be more than enough against a bad team.

The first star in this one is an obvious one. Shōta Imanaga was the story of the day. I don’t know what more to say in this space that I haven’t already said. He was aggressive and his stuff is nasty. Make no mistake, he has the possibility of being excellent in this league.

The second star is a tougher call. Ian Happ had a hit and a walk. The hit keyed the decisive sixth inning rally that ultimately made Shōta and the Cubs to winning. In this spot, I give an honorable mention to Morel, because you could go either way on the focal point of that rally that is the second biggest story of this game.

The third star for me is Drew Smyly. The Cubs had to use a lot of arms in the three games in Texas over the weekend. With Jameson Taillon and Justin Steele likely out until at least May, the big concern is that you can get sideways in a hurry having to throw four, five pitchers or more in every game, you can drag all of your pitchers down. So kudos to Imanaga and Smyly for putting the brakes on that. After Yency Almonte faced five batters in the seventh, Smyly came in and faced six batters to close down the final two innings. The Cubs head to game five with consecutive wins and all of their leverage relievers are fresh. This increases the odds of them stacking another win.

Game 4, April 1: Cubs 5, Rockies 0 (2-2)

Fangraphs

Reminder: Heroes and Goats are determined by WPA scores and are in no way subjective.

THREE HEROES:

• Superhero: Shōta Imanaga (.360). 6 IP, 21 batters, 2 H, 9 K (W 1-0)
• Hero: Christopher Morel (.282). 2-3, R
• Sidekick: Ian Happ (.057). 1-3, BB, R

THREE GOATS:

• Billy Goat: Cody Bellinger (-.091). 1-4, 2 RBI
• Goat: Yan Gomes (-.062). 0-3, R
• Kid: Michael Busch (-.056). 1-4

WPA Play of the Game: Christopher Morel batted with runners on first and second and one out in the sixth. As previously detailed, he hit a single that would turn into a three-run “little league” home run for the first three runs of the game. (.276)

*Rockies Play of the Game: One batter before Morel’s game-changing single, Dakota Hudson coaxed a harmless fly ball off the bat of Cody Bellinger. (.072)

Player of the Game:

Poll

Who was the Cubs Player of the Game?

• 96%

  Shōta Imanaga

  (28 votes)

• 0%

  Christopher Morel

  (0 votes)

• 0%

  Ian Happ

  (0 votes)

• 3%

  Drew Smyly

  (1 vote)

• 0%

  Someone else (leave your suggestion in the comments)

  (0 votes)

29 votes total Vote Now

Game 3 Winner: Ian Happ grabbed 90 percent of the votes for his contributions in game three that involved three singles, a double and an RBI walk.

Up Next: Weather permitting, Javier Assad is scheduled to start the Tuesday game. Javier slots into the fifth spot in the rotation in part because of the injury to Jameson Taillon. Make no mistake though: Javier has appeared in 41 MLB games, 18 of them starts, with a 3.06 ERA. Assad has been a contributor when given the opportunity. He is a solid, even if unspectacular, performer.

Kyle Freeland is scheduled for the Rockies. He’s already started one game for the Rockies and he got absolutely lit up, charged with 10 runs in 2⅓ innings of work in the opening series against the defending NL Champion Arizona Diamondbacks. Kyle has pitched for the Rockies since 2017, accumulating a 4.47 ERA over 185 appearances. All but five of those were starts. He’s never recaptured the magic and brilliance of his 2018 season when he was 17-7 with a 2.85 ERA.

Don’t sleep on Freeland, but this game looks winnable again. Stack the wins while you can, boys.

Adblock test (Why?)

https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiU2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJsZWVkY3ViYmllYmx1ZS5jb20vMjAyNC80LzIvMjQxMTg0MzgvMjAyNC1jdWJzLWhlcm9lcy1hbmQtZ29hdHMtZ2FtZS000gEA?oc=5

2024-04-02 14:00:00Z
CBMiU2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJsZWVkY3ViYmllYmx1ZS5jb20vMjAyNC80LzIvMjQxMTg0MzgvMjAyNC1jdWJzLWhlcm9lcy1hbmQtZ29hdHMtZ2FtZS000gEA

Bagikan Berita Ini