You’re welcome, Brewers. Way to waste it on a night losing heavily to the Cardinals (who gain NL Central in the process).
The Cubs played spoiler for the Phillies tonight, knocking out the game and winning a close. Winning, you will recall, is actually good.
The Cubs’ offense didn’t do much tonight, with Christopher Morel’s solo homer and Yan Gomes’ runscoring double the only RBI producing events. They had a few more good chances that led nowhere, and a lot of that is just the product of Zack Wheeler recording (and Connor Brogdon is pretty good too).
Marcus Stroman was fantastic again, completely in control for his seven innings. A full 18 of the 21 outs he recorded came via strikeouts or groundballs. He just keeps hitters off balance with his varied pitch mix, pitch shapes and ability to control all four corners of the zone.
Speaking of all those groundballs, Stroman wasn’t alone…
Full box score.