2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 35 - Bleed Cubbie Blue

I talk not infrequently about glass half full or half empty. Right now, on the morning of May 6, 2024, my Cubs cup is as full as I can remember it in quite a while. Chicks may dig the long ball, but this dude digs starting pitching. The Cubs are in the midst of one of the longest runs of strong starting pitching that I can remember. Hayden Wesneski, Jameson Taillon and Javier Assad just faced the team’s main division rival Milwaukee Brewers, all threw at least six innings and none of them allowed a run.

Savvy fans on both sides of the rivalry know that any given stretch of games is but a tiny microcosm of the season. But, there’s no way if you are on the Brewers side of things that you aren’t a little uneasy this morning, even leaving town with a first-place tie. Sure, you are going to tell yourself that the games were largely close and you are, of course, right. See: microcosm. But, you can’t be happy about it. Particularly, since it got worse for the Brewers as the weekend went on. Sunday’s game did not feature the requisite tightrope act from the Cubs bullpen.

Worse still for the Brewers, this Cubs offense is still a pale shadow of the relentless attack we saw from it earlier in the year. Sure, that vision of the offense could be a mirage. Or, this offense could be struggling a bit without two of its best hitters. It certainly isn’t going to hurt the team to add Cody Bellinger and Seiya Suzuki to the mix. But the real cherry on top is that the Cubs starters just blanked the Brewers for three games and none of those three games were started by this year’s best starter to date, Shōta Imanaga, or last year’s best starter, Justin Steele.

The Cubs have played 21-14 ball and are tied for first place in the Central and nearly half of their expected significant contributors have already spent time on the injured list. To say that this team passed the test with flying colors would be an understatement. To be 21-14 and to feel like there were probably more games that you should have won that you lost than games that you should have lost that you won is fantastic. There are no guarantees, but this team might have a chance to be a real contender.

The photo for the history book is still being developed. But this is a team we can dream on. If Craig Counsell and the front office grow and nurture this team right, they’ll be in the conversation. Do you have to at least have pause about the Braves and Dodgers with their stacked lineups? No question. But, for all of their hype, those teams were both eliminated last year by an upstart, unheralded Diamondbacks team. Don’t tell me that it isn’t at least possible to get hot and reach the World Series with a good team.

Let’s find three star performances on a day when nearly every performance was positive.

1. I love me some pitching. So give me a heaping helping of Javier Assad finishing six scoreless on the way to his third win of the season. Four hits and three walks says that this wasn’t a truly dominant performance, but zero runs states that it was certainly more than effective enough.
2. Yency Almonte threw two scoreless, facing the minimum of six batters. He struck half of them out. Since that nightmare game back in April when he allowed three runs, Yency is 1-0 with a 1.42 ERA over 12⅔ innings. He’s struck out 19 of 49 batters and walked only five while allowing three hits. You can’t just drop someone’s worst performance and pretend it didn’t happen, but if I move the endpoint one more day, it drops one more run allowed (of the three, two earned that he’s allowed). This is why we don’t DFA them when they have a terrible game or two.
3. I could hat tip nearly anyone on the offensive side. No one hitter set themselves way apart. Seven different Cubs had one hit, but none had too. There was only one extra base hit. Five different guys scored runs. But one player reached base four times. He drove in a run as well. That’s Christopher Morel. Let’s snapshot this run he is on. Dating to April 26, he has 41 plate appearances with a .257/.366/.629 (wRC+ 179). See again: not DFAing them when they struggle. This man can carry a team when he’s hot and the defense is certainly improving at Friday. Nothing like having a Gold Glove mentor to work with.

Game 35, May 5: Cubs 5, Brewers 0 (21-14)

Fangraphs

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

THREE HEROES:

• Superhero: Javier Assad (.331). 6 IP, 25 batters, 4 H, 3 BB, 4 K (W 3-0)
• Hero: Nico Hoerner (.222). 1-5, 2B, 2 RBI, R
• Sidekick: Christopher Morel (.080). 1-1, 3 BB, RBI

THREE GOATS:

• Billy Goat: Michael Busch (-.101). 0-4
• Goat: Dansby Swanson (-.047). 1-4, HR, RBI, R
• Sidekick: Ian Happ (-.032). 1-3, BB, CS

WPA Play of the Game: Nico Hoerner batted in the fifth with runners on first and second with one out against Freddy Peralta in a scoreless game. He doubled and the first two runs of the game scored (hat tip to Miguel Amaya scoring from first). (.212)

*Brewers Play of the Game: For those wondering how Swanson’s line ended up on the wrong side of the ledger, it was already 3-0 by the time he homered (.039) but in the fourth inning it was scoreless when he batted with a runner on first and one out. He hit a line drive that ended up with a double play. (.063) If that ball finds a hole, Dansby is comfortably on the Sidekick podium.

Cubs Player of the Game:

Poll

Who was the Cubs Player of the Game?

• 0%

  Javier Assad

  (0 votes)

• 0%

  Nico Hoerner

  (0 votes)

• 0%

  Christopher Morel

  (0 votes)

• 0%

  Yency Almonte

  (0 votes)

• 0%

  Someone else (leave your suggestion in the comments)

  (0 votes)

0 votes total Vote Now

Yesterday’s Winner: Jameson Taillon picked up 92 percent of the vote. Seven votes for someone else, that appeared to be Patrick Wisdom from the comments. I missed that opportunity for sure.

Rizzo Award Cumulative Standings: (Top 4/Bottom 4)

The award is named for Anthony Rizzo, who finished first in this category three of the first four years it was in existence and four times overall. He also recorded the highest season total ever at +65.5. The point scale is three points for a Superhero down to negative three points for a Billy Goat.

• Jameson Taillon +10
• Javier Assad +9.5
• Shōta Imanaga/Hayden Wesneski +9
• Matt Mervis -6
• Miguel Amaya -9
• Adbert Alzolay -13
• Kyle Hendricks -15

Up Next: The Padres come to town at 18-19. The Cubs lost two of three to them in San Diego in early April and will look to return the favor. The Cubs start some fellow just back from the minor leagues named Justin Steele (0-0, 1.93). The Cubs will surely be ecstatic to welcome back their ace, even after watching three different starters go six or more innings without allowing a run over the weekend.

He’ll face a former Cubs ace in Yu Darvish (1-1, 3.45). I don’t have to tell anyone here about Yu’s history as you are all quite familiar with him. What not all of you may know is how the 37-year-old righty is holding up as he drifts into the back end of his career. Yu just collected his first win of the season against the Reds the last time through the rotation. He threw five scoreless and allowed only three hits and no walks. Yu has only had one start longer than five innings, way back on April 2 and that one was actually a loss. So get there early if you are going to see our old pal Yu.

The Cubs scored four runs on first hits and three walks against Yu in San Diego. That was one of the first nights I remember being really impressed with the Cubs offense this year. I’d be ecstatic if they could do that again. But this game scares me after a really, really strong weekend against a rival.

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2024-05-06 13:30:00Z
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