You know, based on the number of baserunners the Cubs had in this game — 13 hits and six walks, not to mention a hit batsman — they should have scored many, many more than six runs. RISPy business, again — 4-for-18 (!) with runners in scoring position, 11 men left on base, and more baserunning hijinks I’ll describe below.
Nevertheless, the six runs they did score turned out to be enough, and the Cubs won their third straight, 6-5 over the Marlins
.Early on, the Cubs were doing real good work at keeping
guys off the bases. Except not the other team’s runners… instead, their own.
In the first, Michael Busch got himself called out on strikes on something you almost never see — a batter timer violation. This was apparently called, per the boxscore, because he called timeout for a second time in the at-bat.
In the second, Ian Happ led off with a single and tried to take third on a single by Nico Hoerner. Nope, said the Marlins defense [VIDEO].
It’s a baseball axiom that you try not to make the first out of an inning at third base, given that if you’re on second with nobody out, you’re already in scoring position.
It’s also a baseball axiom that you shouldn’t make the third out of an inning at third base, but the Cubs did that in that inning as well. Hoerner had taken second on the play on Happ at third, but one out later he tried to steal third and was thrown out.
So by that time the Cubs had three hits and nothing to show for it. More on that baserunning from BCB’s JohnW53:
The Cubs’ two runners out at third in the second inning were just their 28th and 29th outs on bases all season. Their 27 to start the day tied them with the Cardinals for third fewest. The Rangers had 26; the Mariners, 23. The Marlins had the most by far, 62 to the runner-up Nationals’ 56. The combined average of the 29 other teams was 40, nearly half again more than the Cubs’ 27.
In the bottom of the second, Happ flashed some glove [VIDEO].
Michael Conforto put the Cubs on the board in the top of the third with his 14th homer [VIDEO].
After Pete Crow-Armstrong struck out, Seiya Suzuki walked. One out later, Alex Bregman was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Happ then singled in a pair [VIDEO].
The Cubs made it 4-0 in the top of the fourth. With two out, Miguel Amaya doubled and PCA singled him in [VIDEO].
Javier Assad had held the Marlins scoreless for three innings, but had run up a high pitch count with a lot of walks. In the bottom of the fourth, another walk came back to bite Assad, as that plus a double and a couple of force plays scored a pair of Marlins to make it 4-2.
The Cubs got one of those runs back in the fifth. Busch led off with a double and two outs later, Nico singled him in to make it 5-2 [VIDEO].
Assad gave up a leadoff single in the fifth, then retired the next two Marlins. At 88 pitches, he was removed to have lefty Caleb Thielbar face Griffin Conine. I mean, that’s statistically the right thing to do, but… Thielbar served up a two-run homer to Conine on his fourth pitch to make it a one-run game.
More on Assad’s day from John:
This was the Cubs’ 19,646th regular-season game since the Modern Era began in 1901.
t was the first in which their starting pitcher finished with an exact line of 4.2 innings pitched, three runs allowed, three hits and five walks.
Six previous starters had gone 4.2, 3 R and 3 H but no more than four walks: Bob Buhl in 1963 (0 walks), Juan Cruz in 2002 (4), Angel Guzman in 2006 (2), Carlos Zambrano in 2009 (4), Adbert Alzolay in 2021 (1) and Edward Cabrera on May 15 (3).
The Cubs pushed the lead back to two runs in the top of the sixth. Conforto led off with a single and Amaya sacrificed him to second. The sac bunt is not something Craig Counsell likes much. It was just the eighth all year for the Cubs, fewest in MLB. But they were trying to stay out of a possible double-play situation, the right thing to do, and Amaya executed.
PCA grounded out, with Conforto taking third, and Suzuki walked. Busch singled in Conforto to make it 6-4 [VIDEO].
Thielbar was much better in the sixth, retiring the Marlins in order, including a pair of strikeouts.
Kyle Stowers homered off Trent Thornton in the seventh to cut the lead to one again. Ryan Rolison had to clean up that inning after Thornton hit two Marlins hitters with two out, which he did with a ground out. In the bottom of the eighth with a Miami runner on second and one out, Ryan Zeferjahn was called on, and got the next two hitters via ground out. The Cubs got their first two hitters on base in the ninth via walks, but could not score any insurance runs.
That left it to Zeferjahn to nail things down, as Jacob Webb is still apparently unavailable after the injury he suffered against the Brewers on Wednesday. Stowers was the first Marlins hitter and Zeferjahn got him on a ground ball, then he struck out Heriberto Hernandez.
Then Zeferjahn appeared to have struck out Conine on a 100 mile per hour fastball to end the game. That was overturned via ABS challenge, a very close pitch. How close? This close! [VIDEO]
And then Zeferjahn calmly retired Otto Lopez on this fly ball to right to end the game [VIDEO].
As noted in the headline, Zeferjahn becomes the 14th Cubs pitcher to record a save this year. The other 13: Webb (9 saves), Thornton (3), Thielbar (3), Daniel Palencia (3), Rolison (2), Assad (2), Aaron Civale (2), Jordan Wicks (2), Colin Rea (1), Hoby Milner (1), Ben Brown (1), Gavin Hollowell (1) and Corbin Martin (1). The team total of 32 ranks 22nd in MLB (and the Cubs also have 24 blown saves).
Zeferjahn did good work in this game, just when the Cubs really needed someone to step up. Perhaps he’ll become a useful reliver after all.
And a couple more game notes from John:
This may be a little hard to believe, given the late-inning drama, but the Cubs never trailed in the game.
In each of their three straight wins, they have scored first and never fallen behind. They had only one streak of at least three such wins this season: four in a row, April 28-May 2. The won at San Diego, 8-3 and 5-4, and at home vs. the Diamondbacks, 6-5 and 2-0. But in both at San Diego they took an early lead, were tied, then pulled away. They have scored first and held the lead in each of the last three wins.
…..
This was the Cubs’ 11,500th win in the regular season since 1876, first year of the National League. Only two teams had won more going today: the Giants, 11,680, and Dodgers, 11,609. The Cardinals were fourth, with 11,434. The Cubs’ 11,000th was a 9-3 victory at Detroit on Aug. 24, 2020. Since then, they are 499-485.
Thus the Cubs will go for the series sweep Sunday afternoon in Miami. Clay Holmes will start for the Cubs and Tyler Phillips goes for the Marlins. Game time Sunday is 12:40 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.
