A Tip of the Recap – May 22nd

The Cubs were 1 strike away from a 4-2 win, but instead Rondon gave up a 2-run shot and the Cubs ultimately lost 5-4 in 13 innings to the D-Backs. 

The Good

Jon Lester was pretty solid all night; he finished with 7 innings pitched, giving up just 2 runs (both earned) on 5 hits (1 HR) and 2 walks with 4 K’s. Though he didn’t get the win, Lester lowered his ERA to 3.56, which is impressive because back at the end of April it was up to 6.23.

The Cubs came out slugging tonight with several extra base hits (3 doubles and a HR). Dexter Fowler got the scoring started for the Cubs with a solo shot that he whipped over the RF fence for his 5th HR of the year. Castro, Rizzo and Soler each had a double at the plate tonight.

Fowler reached in the top of the 10th via a full-count walk. He then stole his 10th base and scored the go-ahead run on a bloop single by Kris Bryant (his 28th RBI), which extended Bryant’s hit streak to 11 games.

Starlin Castro came up big with an insurance run later in the inning, an RBI single that scored Bryant from 2nd base to extend the lead to 4-2. It was his 24th RBI and his 2 hit day raised his AVG to .274 for the year. But alas, that was not enough for Rondon and Rosscup.

The Bad

Hector Rondon is a confounding situation for sure; tonight he got two quick and easy ground-outs before giving up a double to AJ Pollock that was just out of the reach of Junior Lake in LF. That brought Paul Goldschmidt to the plate as the tying run and he did what he does and smashed an elevated fastball for a 2-run shot to knot things up at 4-4.

Zac Rosscup gave up the winning run in the bottom of the 13th after back to back hard hit doubles by Tuffy Gosewisch and Nick Ahmed.

On Deck

Game 2 is tomorrow night at 9:10 PM (CST) on CSN and MLB Network; it will feature Jake Arrieta (4-4, 2.77) for the Cubs facing off against Rubby De La Rosa (4-2, 4.08) for the D-Backs.