A Tip of the Recap – May 31st

David Ross played hero today with a walk-off single in the bottom of the 11th to give the Cubs the 2-1 victory over the Royals today.

The Good

Tsuyoshi Wada looked very good today, going 5.2 innings and giving up only 2 hits, with 1 walk and 4 K’s. He did get charged with an earned run, but I would say that was on Travis Wood more so than Wada. Wada’s ERA is down to 2.30 and he will get the Nationals the next time out. That will be a good test because it will be against a team that just saw him recently.

Justin Grimm was lights out today and provided some great work out of the pen. He went 1.1 perfect innings and struck out 3 to lower his ERA to an even 1.00.

Pedro Strop looked great in his 1 perfect inning as well. He threw 9 pitches (8 for strikes) and got 2 K’s. It was a sorely needed outing from him as he has been struggling as of late.

Chris Coghlan was pretty much the offense for the Cubs today. He was a perfect 3 for 3 at the plate and drove in the tying run in the 7th on a single, but he was thrown out at 2nd trying to get himself into scoring position. Coghlan has made pretty solid contact all year so it is nice to see some of these hits finally drop in for him. He raised his average to .225 and hopefully this is a sign of things to come.

The top of the order played out perfectly in the bottom of the 11th. Leadoff walks to Fowler and Bryant (both on full counts), followed by a single from Rizzo (though Fowler was thrown out at home on the play), set the wheels for victory into motion. An intentional walk later to Castro set up Ross for the bloop walk off hit.

The Bad

Travis Wood wasn’t very sharp as he came into the game for Wada with 1 on and 2 out in the top the 6th and failed to retire either of the two guys he faced. He first issued a walk then gave up an RBI single to Alex Gordon that put the Royals on the board, before being replaced by Grimm.

Jorge Soler struck out 3 times today (once with the winning run on 3rd in the bottom of the 9th) and was hitless on the day. I for one didn’t think he would have these kind of contact issues in the big leagues. He had around a 20% K% in the minors, but this year he is striking out nearly 1/3 of the time.

On Deck 

The Cubs will head to Miami for 3 against the all of the sudden, hot Marlins. Game 1 will be Jason Hammel (3-2, 2.98) for the Cubs against rookie Jose Urena (0-1, 9.39) for the Marlins. Game time is 6:10 PM (CST) and it will be televised on CSN.