Series Review: Cubs Split Series with Braves
The Chicago Cubs were rained out one game and split the other two against the Braves over the last weekend in April. It was cold and rainy all weekend but that didn’t stop Cubs fans from coming out to Wrigley Field. The attendance on Friday’s day game was 34,007 and, again on Sunday, the Cubs’ drew 40,164.
Pitching breakdown
Once again, the Cubs’ pitchers kept the pressure on the entire series. Starting pitching allowed only three earned runs and five walks over fifteen innings. The Bullpen was good with the exception of Hector Rondon who came on in relief in the tenth inning of Sunday’s series finale. Hector gave up two consecutive singles and a sacrifice fly that allowed the Braves to score the winning run.
Here’s the total pitching stats:
| Player | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA |
| Jon Lester | 7 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 1 | 1.29 |
| John Lackey | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2.25 |
| Travis Wood | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Pedro Strop | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Hector Rondon | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 4.50 |
| Justin Grimm | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Totals | 19 | 12 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 17 | 1 | 1.89 |
Offensive highlights
The Cubs’ batters have been doing a superb job getting on base all year. In fact, they’re second in the Majors in OBP at .364. This is driven mainly due to their uncanny ability to draw walks as they continue to grind out quality at-bats. They lead the league in walks with 121 and the next closest team is at 105 walks. Interestingly, the Cubs are twelfth in the League in batting average at .255. This all adds up to 136 runs scored, which is good enough for second in the Majors.
This series was much of the same for the Cubs offense. They scored nine runs on thirteen hits and ten walks. They actually ended the first game of the series with the same number of walks and hits, seven. The Cubs HPR is 1.44 for the series.
Here’s the offensive totals for the series:
| Player | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | K | BA | OBP |
| Dexter Fowler | 7 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | .286 | .444 |
| Jason Heyward | 8 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | .000 | .111 |
| Ben Zobrist | 6 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | .167 | .375 |
| Anthony Rizzo | 7 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | .286 | .444 |
| Kris Bryant | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | .250 | .400 |
| Jorge Soler | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .250 | .250 |
| Addison Russell | 7 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | .143 | .250 |
| David Ross | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .250 | .250 |
| Tommy La Stella | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .250 | .400 |
| Matt Szczur | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.000 |
| Javier Baez | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .333 | .500 |
| Tim Federowicz | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 |
| Jon Lester | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 |
| John Lackey | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .000 | .000 |
| Team Totals | 64 | 9 | 13 | 9 | 10 | 15 | .203 | .320 |
The Cubs offense was driven by Dexter Fowler, who has continued his hot start to the season, Ben Zobrist, and Anthony Rizzo. They each had OBP of .375 (Zobrist) or higher and combined scored five of the Cubs’ nine runs.
The biggest shot of the series came off the bat of Matt Szczur. Matt came in as a pinch-hitter in the the bottom of the eighth inning of the first game and crushed a grand slam to left center field. He alone accounted for 44% of the Cubs’ runs in the series with one swing.
Bottom line
Pitching and defense continue to be driving the Cubs to victories. Their ability to get quality at-bats keeps opposing pitchers off balance and is helping the Cubs to be a top team in on-base percentage. They came up against hot pitching on Sunday, which they almost overcame by pushing the game into extra innings, but Hector Rondon couldn’t stop the Braves from scoring the winning run in the bottom of the tenth inning. Cubs split the series 1-1. Here are link to the indidual game summaries:
- Cubs 6, Braves 1; Szczur Slams the Door on the Braves, Cubs Win
- Cubs Rained Out, Lackey to Pitch Sunday Against the Braves
- Braves 4, Cubs 3; Cubs Fight, Come Up Just Short in Pitching Duel