by Boutros Boutros Ghali
Cubs fans know that Arrieta is the second coming of the Red Baron this season as he has gone on a Sutcliffe-like run to end this season. Jon Lester has been good (if not perfect like Cubes Fans expect) and seems to be especially good right now at the end of the season, so the two top spots in the Cubs rotation are locked in. The question everyone seems to have is what to do about the other starts the Cubs need to make the run to the World Series.
Over their last three starts, the Triple H has shown that they can win and look fairly good doing it. Haren and Hammel won without giving up any runs vs the Reds and Hendricks showed he could do the same against the Brew Crew on Saturday. This isn't top of the line competition like we will see in the playoffs, but it's nice to see the beleagured back end showing some dominance late in the season.
In the second to last game of the season, the handsome youngsters were a bit anemic on offense, but the one guy that has come up big more often this year than anybody ever expected, Cobra Coggs struck again. In the second inning, Coghlan popped one out between left and center for an easy double except he was not stopping with what was easy.
Coghlan was on his horse early and the Brewers assumed he would just stop at second. Big Boss Cogg never slowed down and forced the Brewers to try to get him at third, which they were unable to do as he slid in against an off line throw.
Addison Hustle knows his job and the kid put the ball on the ground to the first base side to give Coghlan the room to run home. The hit was sharp and got through to right field for a single and Russell won the game with that bit of beautiful hitting. Cubs 1-Brewers 0.
Kyle Hendricks was doing his best Jake Arrieta impression with a perfect game through five innings of work up in Milwaukee. In his six innings, only one Brewer reached base on a single in the sixth. He ended with 8 Ks in only 19 batters with one hit and no walks and no runs.
Strop, Rodney, and Rondon finished out the game with an inning apiece. Strop and Rondon were as dominant as Hendricks but Rodney had a hat tilt issue.
In the eighth inning, the Leprechaun had a no out hat tilt and walked the first batter he saw. He moved the hat and the got himself a strikeout, but the second and third outs were still not dialed in. Hernan Perez singled to put runners at the corners and Rondon was looking for his lucky charms to get out of the inning with the one run lead.
His lucky charms were all stars with Bryant grabbing the grounder and throwing to Baez who turned the wheel over to Rizzo to get Maldonado easily at first base. Rodney pointed to the rainbow in the sky and the Cubs got out of the inning.
It was win number 96 for the season and the Pirates stalled at 97, which means the Cubs and Pirates battle today for the Wild Card game. If the Pirates win, they get the game in Pittsburgh. If they lose, the Cubs can steal that game with a win and play in front of the home fans in Wrigley Field.
So, let's go Cubs and let the Bucs fall where they may.