A Tip of the Recap – April 14th

The Cubs’ rally at the end came up short as they fell by a score of 3-2 to the Reds.

The Good

Welington Castillo is coming up big in the pinch so far and is now 2 for 3 with 3 RBI as a substitute hitter. Today he followed a walk by Matt Szczur with a 2-run HR (his 1st).

Szczur came in late into the game and walked in both times up to the plate and scored a run.

Zac Rosscup was called up today and pitched 1.1 innings of near perfect relief. He gave up no hits, but walked 1 (Votto) and struck out 2. It will be interesting if he stays when the time comes to add a fielder (hopefully Bryant). My hope is that the Cubs send down Brian Schlitter, but we will see.

Jake Arrieta was more or less good tonight. He started out by retiring 9 straight hitters to open the game and finished with 6.2 innings, giving up 3 runs (all earned) on 7 hits and a walk while striking out 5.

The Bad

Like I said above, Arrieta was mostly good, but the one bad thing tonight was his 4th inning, in which he gave up 5 of his 7 hits (all singles) and all 3 runs. His start was still very good and if it wasn’t for this one inning, it would have been another dominant one.

The Ugly

Nothing real ugly from a highly competitive game with just one bad inning from the starter. The Cubs had their chances in the 9th, with Castro leading off with a single to left off of Chapman and Szczur drawing a walk on a full count. Sadly though, David Ross and Mike Olt both struck out, leaving the tying and go ahead run on the bases.

On Deck

The Cubs will wrap up their series with the Reds tomorrow with first pitch set for 7:05 PM (CST) on MY50 Chicago, WPWR in the Chicagoland area or hopefully your local affiliate if you aren’t near Chicago. Travis Wood (0-1, 5.79) will get the start against his former team, who will counter with Jason “Yes, he is still in the league” Marquis (0-0, 4.50).