A Tip of the Recap – June 20th

The Cubs played a much better game today than yesterday and their offensive outburst in the 10th led them to a 4-1 victory over the Twins.

The Good

Starlin Castro came up clutch with a 2-run single in the top of the 10th to put the Cubs ahead. He finished the day 2 for 5 and is now hitting .264 with 34 RBI on the year. He made some good plays on D too, helping turn 3 double plays today.

Anthony Rizzo drove in the first run of the day for the Cubs with an 0-2, 2-out double to drive in Addison Russell for his 42nd RBI in the top of the 3rd. He also helped get the rally started in the 10th with a single to move Dexter Fowler (who also singled) over to 3rd to put men on 1st and 3rd with no outs.

Fowler had a single and reached via an error in the top of the 10th to get the rally started; he also made an outstanding throw from the warning track in CF to get Byron Buxton out at 2nd as he tried to tag up from first.

David Ross had a couple hits and also picked off a runner at first in the bottom of the 8th for the final out of the inning. He gets bashed by some, but he is still a decent defender who can make plays. And it isn’t like he plays that often to really be an issue one way or the other with his lack of offensive ability.

Chris Denorfia added an insurance run in the 10th to make the game 4-1 and I’m glad his return timed up well with Soler going on the DL. He doesn’t have much power at all to speak of, but he is doing a decent job in Soler’s absence, hitting .345.

Jon Lester had a great start today for the Cubs, going 6.1 innings and giving up just 1 run (earned) on 3 hits (solo HR), with 3 walks and 7 Ks. He got a no-decision, but lowered his ERA to 3.80 on the year to go with his 4-5 record.

The Bad

Kyle Schwarber has calmed down the past couple days at the plate and it appears pitchers have adjusted to him by bringing the pitches more up and out of the zone to get him to chase. He went 1 for 5 today (1 hit was a 50 FT dribbler down the 3rd base line) with 3 Ks. It would be nice to see him make some adjustments up in the big leagues, but he will go to Iowa after tomorrow and work on catching and adjusting to what the MLB pitchers have done to him the latter part of this week.

On Deck

The Cubs will finish their series with the Twins tomorrow afternoon with another 1:10 PM (CST) start time. It will be televised on ABC 7 again in the Chicagoland area. Jake Arrieta (6-5, 3.40) gets the ball against Kyle Gibson (4-5, 3.33) for the Twins.