That’s why you play them. That’s something you might have heard about a game like this if it occurred in August. One team expected to lose 90 plus games, the other expected to win at least that many. The Nationals early into a full rebuild with a young front office at the helm. The Cubs coming off of a playoff series win. A team feeling that it has unfinished business. A team that believes it can play baseball deep into October.
On Opening Day, the Cubs were not that team. This team was but a shadow
of last year’s team. It’s one game. Just one of 162. We don’t draw conclusions from one game. Though the first one always lends itself to outsized importance. I suspect Paul Skenes won’t have an ERA north of 6.00, much less 60.00. I don’t suspect the Cardinals will score 1,000 runs. I don’t suspect Ian Happ will strike out over 450 times.
I do suspect the Cubs will win a lot of games. I do suspect the defense will look crisper than it did Thursday. I hope the Cubs will see more from Matthew Boyd and Ben Brown than they got Thursday. Though even at that, it wasn’t nothing that Boyd showed a ton of swing and miss stuff in this one. Hopefully he can build on that and pull away from the hard contact. That’s the challenge. As to Brown, he didn’t overwhelm. He did give some length and keep you from having to throw a parade of relievers in the opener. To be sure, with an off day Friday, that means less. That said, after that off day, they’ll jump right into four games in four days and the grind is under way. It’s not nothing to save others.
The offense showed a fairly patient approach and did create a lot of traffic. They did not cash in on very many of the opportunities. You have to roll your eyes a little at this game. Ian Happ absolutely demolished one that flat died in left field. Maybe got under it. And maybe on the right day in August that one lands up by our own Al Yellon in the bleachers. The Nationals put two of their own out, including one the other way that looked maybe aided by the wind. It was one of those rough days that happen in Chicago. But that weather played both ways and only appeared to stifle one team.
Not good enough. That’s the bottom line. We’re not going to belabor it here. We’ll turn the page and get on to game number two on Saturday. Before we do, let’s see if we can find three stars from the opener.
Three Stars:
- Michael Busch: Three hits, one a double, and a walk. Drove in a run. Scored twice. The clear star of this game.
- Pete Crow-Armstrong: Two hits, two runs driven in. With the extension, he’s going to be making us shake our heads for years to come. For better and for worse. It felt like we got some of all of it in this one.
- Dansby Swanson drew a pair of walks, drove in a run and scored another. He also made a nice play defensively.
Game 1, March 26: Nationals 10, Cubs 4 (0-1)
Reminder: Heroes and Goats are determined by WPA scores and are in no way subjective.
THREE HEROES:
- Superhero: Michael Busch (.168). 3-4, BB, 2B, RBI, R
- Hero: Dansby Swanson (.069). 0-2, 2 BB, RBI, R
- Sidekick: Pete Crow-Armstrong (.041). 2-5, 2 RBI
THREE GOATS:
- Billy Goat: Matthew Boyd (-.402). 3.2 IP, 17 BF, 6 H, BB, 6 ER, 7 K (L 0-1)
- Goat: Ben Brown (-.109). 3.1 IP, 13 BF, 3 H, BB, 2 ER, 3 K
- Kid: Nico Hoerner (-.103). 0-4, R
WPA Play of the Game: Daylen Lile batted with runners on first and third and one out in the fourth against Matthew Boyd. He singled, one run scored and the other runner advanced to third. That run tied the game at two.(.117)
*Cubs Play of the Game: Pete Crow-Armstrong batted with runners on first and second and two outs in the third, the game tied at one. He singled and the Cubs had a short lived lead. (.080)
Cubs Player of the Game:
Up Next: Cade Horton makes his 2026 debut against our old pal Miles Mikolas. Let’s hope game two is dramatically different than game one.
