Wow, what a cool win. Didn't expect that.
Thoughts (I didn't see everything): First hit off Edwards was a really good pitch with two strikes, a lucky fluky bloop. And he threw strikes.
Man, the Bryant walk leading off, he took some really close pitches for balls with two strikes. Last one was just off the plate, and at least one of the earlier ones too. Pretty cool and collected to take those, and maybe kind of lucky that the ump called them right, when at least one was really close. Contreras took some awfully close ones too, I thought, before finally flying out.
Really lucky on the Almora squib. Lots of luck in these games. Bryant was really fast coming down the line, not sure anybody but he and Baez would have beaten that play?
I'm pretty sure Kapler was doing lefty-righty stuff. But I thought it was interesting that with runners 2nd-and-3rd, he pitched to Contreras, but then walked Hewyard. He got Contreras without scoring, and then set up the DP with DP-vulnerable Almora, so made sense. But even with the lefty-righty factor, I'm not sure I wouldn't have walked the better, more dangerous Contreras, and set up the force at home and DP option with bad-hitting slumping ground-ball DP-prone Heyward.
Anyway, fun that it worked out for the Cubs.
yesterday's game was borderline and somewhat lucky for the PHillies, so you get some and you lose some. My recall is that their first run, scored with 2 outs, was on a not very hard-hit grounder (Realmuto?) that's probably an out >80% of the time. But Russell must have been playing way in the hole and it got through. Win some, you lose some.
Cubs are going to need to get some HR action going again, I think. These two games I think reflect how difficult it is to beat teams with really good pitching and really talented relief, if you don't produce any runs via the quick-strike HR. Maybe tomorrow?
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