It wasn’t easy, or pretty at the end, but the Cubs held on to a ninth-inning lead and defeated the Angels 4-3, sweeping the three-game series. It’s the team’s first sweep since they swept the Guardians at Wrigley Field July 1-3, and their first on the road since they swept the A’s in Sacramento — back in April! The win moves the Cubs to a season-high 21 games over .500.
Let’s rewind to the beginning of this win, which maybe was a bit too exciting.
The Angels scored first in this one — the first time
they had the lead in the entire series. Taylor Ward homered off Jameson Taillon in the first inning.
Old friend Kyle Hendricks did some Kyle Hendricks things early, getting some weak contact and retiring the first five Cubs he faced before he walked his longtime teammate Ian Happ in the second.
The Cubs got on the board in the third, tying the game 1-1. Matt Shaw bounced a double into the seats with one out, and one out later Kyle Tucker singled him in [VIDEO].
The Cubs took the lead in the fourth. With two out, Hendricks walked Happ again. Nico Hoerner drove him in with this double [VIDEO].
In the fifth, Hendricks ran out of gas as we saw him do quite a few times in his last couple of years with the Cubs. Michael Busch singled with one out. Tucker walked and Seiya Suzuki singled to load the bases. That was it for The Professor, who didn’t throw too badly. Fun Hendricks fact that has nothing to do with this game:
Another former Cub, Andrew Chafin, relieved Hendricks. Pete Crow-Armstrong sent this sac fly to right to make it 3-1 [VIDEO].
Carson Kelly followed with this single scoring Tucker [VIDEO].
Taillon completed the fifth inning without incident. He did get some defensive help on yet another nice snag by Shaw [VIDEO].
I was kind of surprised to see Taillon lifted after having thrown only 62 pitches, but I suppose with the bullpen well rested and an off day Monday, Craig Counsell figured he could give his starter a bit of extra rest.
Unfortunately, that backfired. Andrew Kittredge had a rough sixth inning, allowing a pair of runs. The second one wasn’t his fault, scoring on a rare error by Dansby Swanson on a ground ball that otherwise would have ended the inning.
Caleb Thielbar allowed a single in an otherwise scoreless seventh. Brad Keller had a 1-2-3 eighth on only 12 pitches. The Cubs went to the ninth with that one-run lead and called on Daniel Palencia. It wasn’t pretty for the Cubs closer, who allowed a leadoff single to Luis Rengifo and then walked the dangerous Yoán Moncada, putting the potential winning run on base.
But Palencia calmly struck out the next two Angels to win the game. Here’s the final out [VIDEO].
An encouraging note here from BCB’s JohnW53:
This is just the fourth time since 2000 that the Cubs have begun a road trip of at least nine games by sweeping the first series. They won four straight at Milwaukee in 2003 to start a 13-game trip; three at Pittsburgh in 2005, to start a 10-game trip; and three at Boston, June 30-July 2, 2014, to start an 11-game trip. This was their 24th series to begin an extended trip since then. This trip is their 62nd of at least nine games since 2000.
The Cubs have Monday off before opening a series in San Francisco against the Giants, who they thank very much for taking two of three from the Brewers over the weekend. With that and this win, the Cubs creep to within five games of the NL Central lead, with 31 games remaining. Is it likely the Cubs come back to win the division? No, but… neither is that deficit impossible to overcome.
Anyway, now the Giants can resume losing. At this writing the Cubs do not have a starter listed for Tuesday’s series opener, but if they stay on rotation it should be Matthew Boyd. Justin Verlander will start for the Giants. Game time Tuesday is 8:45 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.
