Cubs sought to split the series in Miami to start this 11 game road trip in a wining fashion. Jason Hammel and the Cubs would hope to split the series with the Marlins, who had their Ace scheduled for the Sunday ballgame. Hammel is also serving for his first win since June 4th against the Diamondbacks. That would not be the case today as the Marlins would win and take the series 3-1.
Let’s just get the offensive side out of the way. Fernandez would get his 10th win of the season on 7 innings giving up only 1 run on 4 hits. He would walk 3 but strike out 13 batters. Rizzo would get the first hit in the second inning. He’d give up the second hit of the game to his counterpart, Hammel, walks Ben Zobrist and gives up a single to Jason Heyward to load the bases. Kris Bryant would score the second out of the inning but the first and only run of the game. Contreras would score the second walk on Fernandez in the 4th but gets caught stealing second base. Heyward would snag a single in the 6th and Rizzo would try to get things going in the top of the 9th with a single but that would be all the action the Cubs would see for the day.
Jason Hammel and the bullpen would not have their best outing with everyone contributing to earned run category. The Marlins would strike first as Hammel walks Justin Bour and then scores on Derek Dietrich’s double center field. He would put 4 batters on in the 3, 4, and 5th innings but would start the 6th off with a double to Giancarlo Stanton and moves to third as Bour flys out. Dietrich would get beaned to get on first. With a man on 1st and 3rd, Andy Hechavarria would ground into an RBI double play that is challenged and overturned to be scored as just a force out. After 6 complete innings, Hammel giving up only 2 runs on 4 hits striking out 3. In the beginning of the year that would have been enough with the Cubs offense securing the win but not today.
Travis Wood enters the 7th inning striking out a batter but gives up 2 hits and a run to have Maddon bring in Justin Grimm also strikes out a batter and gets Bour to groundout to end the inning.
After Grimm gives up a single to start the bottom of the 8th, he would be replaced by Spencer Patton who gets the first two outs of the inning but gives up a single to Miguel Rojas. That would be enough for Maddon as he brings in Gerardo Concepcion who walks Ichiro Suzuki. Martin Prado would smack a double to center scoring both Dietrich and Rojas but would get Christin Yelich to ground out to end the inning.
After 8 innings, 6 runs would be all the Marlins need to knock off the Cubs and take the series. Let’s hope the series goes much better in Cincinnati.
Go Cubs Go!
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