Welcome back to “Three up, three down,” a review of the previous week’s worth of Cubs action during the regular season.
Of course, we don’t have an entire week to review, just three games. Nevertheless, there are some positives — and negatives — that came out of the season-opening series against the Washington Nationals.
Here goes!
Three up
Alex Bregman’s two-homer game
After Bregman went 1-for-9 with a walk in the first two games of the series, he smacked a pair of home runs Sunday, one to left field, one to right.
Here’s his first Cubs
home run (nice catch in the bleachers, too!) [VIDEO]
Check out the launch angle and height on that one [VIDEO].
Bregman will be just fine, I’m not worried about that 1-for-9.
Pete Crow-Armstrong laid down two perfect bunts for hits
With his speed, PCA should be able to do this more often. Of course, you don’t want him to do it all the time, not with his power, but the occasional bunt for a hit if the defense will give that to you would give him an additional weapon.
Here’s the first of those two hits, from Opening Day [VIDEO].
PCA also has two steals, so he could be set up for a good season running the bases. And, as always, he is playing stellar defense [VIDEO].
Congratulations to Nico Hoerner on his contract extension
Nico signed a six-year extension for $141 million that includes a no-trade clause. The extension begins next year, so that will give him 14 seasons in a Cubs uniform.
If this is Nico’s final contract and he retires after it’s over, he would join just three other men who played at least 14 years as a Cub and didn’t play for any other team: Cap Anson (22), Ernie Banks (19) and Stan Hack (16). Overall, 11 men have played at least 14 seasons as a Cub. The other eight: Phil Cavarretta (20), Gabby Hartnett (19), Billy Williams (16), Charlie Root (16), Ryne Sandberg (15), Frank Chance (15), Jimmy Ryan (15) and Ron Santo (14).
If you missed the post-game news conference Sunday with Nico that officially announced the deal, here it is in its entirety:
Honorable mention to Ian Happ and Miguel Amaya, who also homered against the Nationals.
Three down
Matthew Boyd, yikes
Boyd threw three really good innings on Opening Day and then got pounded in the fourth.
I don’t think this is an indication of what’s to come; his velocity seemed fine. Maybe the Nats just figured out what he was throwing. Or maybe he missed some spots. He’ll go again against the Angels this Wednesday (weather permitting).
Hey, his ERA is currently more than 50 runs lower than Paul Skenes’. (Yes, I know this is silly fun with early season numbers.)
Moisés Ballesteros is off to a rough start
In 16 Spring Training games, Ballesteros hit .357/.413/.619 (15-for-42) with five doubles and two home runs.
In the three-game series against the Nats, he was 1-for-10 with four strikeouts.
Yet another reason spring stats don’t tell you much of anything.
Eventually, I think he’ll be fine. I would look for him to sit on Wednesday against Angels left-hander Yusei Kikuchi.
Dansby Swanson: Hitless so far
Swanson is 0-for-8, though he has drawn three walks — and continued to play stellar defense [VIDEO].
So I wouldn’t worry about Dansby.
