Jason Hammel looks for one of his biggest outings against the also hot streaking Pittsburgh Pirates and thier #2 Gerrit Cole. Now I have to be honest, today on The Podcast I not only went against the Cubs but I questioned thier ability to perform against a playoff contending team like the Pirates, who’ve also been tearing up their opennents. They must have had us on in the clubhouse and dugout (I wish) because they shut me up. As I predicted though, Dexter Fowler would lead off the game with a single, at least I was spot on with that but Cole would get out of the inning. Hammel would get leadoff man John Jaso to ground out but would give up a solo home run to Andrew McCutchen. Both pitchers would have relatively easy 2cd innings.
Fowler would leadoff the third with a walk. With two men out Rizzo would step into the box and send a fly ball to right scoring Dexter! Zobrist would send a line drive single to right scoring Rizzo. Russell would end the inning swinging but the Cubs would go up 2-1. The every other inning theory says they both had again relatively easy fourth innings.
With the leadoff man out, Kris Bryant would walk and reach third on Rizzo’s second double of the game. Zobrist would get his second RBI of the game with a sac fly to center. Cole would hit Russell and then walked Matt Szczur prompting a pitching change, with A.J. Schugel. David Ross would send a soft line drive to right, scoring both Rizzo and Russell. Hammel would strikeout ending the inning but the Cubs would be up 6-1.
Jason Hammel would give up a leadoff single to Jody Mercer and then a walk to Jason Rogers but would get the next three batters out including McCutchen but not before Jody Mercer would score. Kyle Lobstein would come in for the Pirates giving up a lead off double to Fowler but would get out of the inning with out any damage. Hammel would start off the sixth by hitting Starling Marte which would bring a coaching visit to the mound. With Adam Warren pitching, Marte would get caught stealing but he would get out of the inning with out a run.
Lobstein would hit Zobrist to start the inning off but would get Addison to pop out. Baez would single pushing Zobrist. Soler would pinch hit for Adam Warren and on a wild pitch Zobrist would score but Soler would pop out. Cubs up 7-2.
Justin Grimm would come into the game and get out of the 7th by only giving up one hit. With Lobstein still in the game, he would get out of the eighth by only giving up a double to Bryant. Pedro Strop would replace Grimm by striking out Matt Joyce. Marte would single to center but that would be all she wrote with Francisco Cervelli grounding into a double play. Arquimedes Caminero would replace Lobstein and with two outs would give up a single to Baez and walk Ross. Clayton Richard would come into the game pinch hitting for Strop but would ground out to end the inning.
Travis Wood comes into close out the game and starts it off by striking out Gregory Polanco. With two outs he’d walk Jody Mercer but would strike out Jason Rogers to end the game. Cubs pitching would prove to be a huge strength tonight especially the bullpen combined only giving up 2 hits and striking out 6 batters with only two walks. Hammel is now 4-0 with 5 games started and only 29 innings. Until tomorrow!
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