20 chicago cubs dog jersey 22 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Games 118 & 119

Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports

Apologies to any regular readers who looked for Heroes and Goats on Saturday after what was a terrific win. I’m dealing with some health-related things and that left me in a position where I wasn’t available to write Friday night or Saturday morning. Fear not, in this edition, we’ll cover both games. I’l chicago cubs away uniform l remind people closer to the time, but I will miss at least some time in September as well. But enough about that. We got some fun baseball to write about.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve used this space to not talk even indirectly about what happened on the field over the last 12 months. I’ve always taken the position that Al writes the recaps and looks at the specifMatt Chapman Blue Jays Jerseys ic blow by blow of what happened. I generally will try to find the bigger story or the context for things going on. For instance, even when things were going good, on Friday I wrote about how the Cubs had been getting Superheroes from so many different directions during this recent surge.

If you read that, you know that the Cubs have now won 11 of their last 15. Of course, you’ve read that elsewhere too, it’s an obvious story. But I highlighted that in the first nine of those wins, nine different players were the Superhero in the nine different wins. Friday’s win made that an even 10 for 10. Saturday’s win finally produced a duplicate.

Saturday’s game was a particularly wild one. It produced the second highest and fourth lowest WPA game scores of the season by Cubs players. Extra-inning games can definitely produce that effect. But Friday’s game too was a back and forth affair with a come from behind win.

Saturday’s win, their fifth straight, marked just their second walkoff win of the season. You also wilMLB Vintage Clothing l know the numbers if you’ve been a regular reader. The Cubs were 23-40 through 63 games. They are now 29-27 since then. That’s a 56-game stretch at a .518 winning percentage. In a 162-game season that’s equivalent to an 84-win season — a fringe playoff team. They are 11-7 since the break.

I’m a Cubs fan. I’m always waiting for the proverbial rug to be pulled out from under the team. But in the meantime, I’m a little bit shocked, a little bit amused and a whole lot entertained.

Let’s get to the games, starting with Friday’s win. We’re going to do three positives on each game, because there was a whole lot to love in these games.

Game 118, August 19: Cubs 8, Brewers 7 (51-67)

Three positives:

I’m going to start with Nick Madrigal with three hits, playing the role of table setter. He scored a pair of runs out of the leadoff spot. Nick has been a completely different player since returning from injury. I’m finally starting to see what the hype was about. It would be criminal not to go with Christopher Morel in one of these spots. He had a pair of hits, scored a pair of runs and had the decisive two-run homer. Morel’s been struggling a bit, chicago cubs mlb jersey retired so this type of game has to be a huge boost. I’m going to tip the cap to the bullpen. After Keegan Thompson got roughed up, this could have gotten ugly. Mark Leiter Jr., Michael Rucker, Steven Brault and Brandon Hughes combined to face 12 batters and record 11 outs. Rucker notched the win and Hughes the save.

Reminder: Heroes and Goats are determined by WPA scores and are in no way subjective.

THREE HEROES:

Superhero: Christopher Morel (.409). 2-3, HR, 2RBI, 2RHero: Brandon Hughes (.163). IP (3 batters), H (Sv 2)Sidekick: Patrick Wisdom (.157). 1-4, HR, 2RBI, R, K

THREE GOATS:

Billy Goat: Keegan Thompson (-.351). 3⅔ IP (20 batters), 6H, 3BB, 5R, 3KGoat: Steven Brault (-.125). ⅔ IP (3 batters), H Kid: Nelson Velázquez (-.123). 0-4, 4K

WPA Play of the Game: With two outs and a runner at first, the Cubs trailed 7-6 when Christopher Morel homered in the sixth inning to cap the scoring. (.358)

*Brewers Play of the Game: Hunter Renfroe homered with one out and a runner on first in the third inning to extend the Brewers lead to three. (.202)

And now we turn our attention to Saturday’s game.

Game 119, August 20: Cubs 6, Brewers 5 (52-67)

We start again with three positives.

1) There are some types of performances that are a gimme for one of these spots. Marcus Stroman pitched into the eighth inning, that’s definitely one of them. 28 batters, 23 outs. I’ll take that performance every time,

2) Another one of those for me is going to be a three-hit game. Extras or no, three hits is a big deal. Nick Madrigal has now done that two games in a row. He’s got his slash line up to .260/.313/.292 (wRC+ 73). The question on Nick is if he is going to produce any power at all. He did have a .425 SLG for the White Sox in 2021. One of his hits on Saturday was an RBI single off of Brewers star Devin Williams to extend the game to extras.

3) Again, it would be criminal to not include Willson Contreras. He had two hits, one his 20th homer of the year, drew a walk and drove in three runs. Among those was the game winner.

Reminder: Heroes and Goats are chicago cubs mlb jersey single game determined by WPA scores and are in no way subjective.

THREE HEROES:

Superhero: Willson Contreras (.581). 2-5, HR, 3RBI, R, BB

This is the second highest WPA game by a Cub this year.

Hero: Marcus Stroman (.383). 7⅔ IP (28 batters), 2H, 4BB, 2R, 5KSidekick: Patrick Wisdom (.360). 1-4, 2B, RBI, R, BB, K, SB

THREE GOATS:

Billy Goat: Rowan Wick (-.505). ⅓ IP (3 batters), H, BB, R, K

This is the fourth lowest WPA game by a Cub this year. Rowan also currently sits third and 10th on that list.

Goat: Seiya Suzuki (-.195). 1-5, K, SBKid: Ian Happ (-.165). 0-5, R, 3K, SB

WPA Play of the Game: With two outs and a runner on first in the eighth inning, the Cubs were up one when Willy Adames hit a two-run homer off of Rowan Wick, spoiling the terrific start of Marcus Stroman. (.517)

*Cubs Play of the Game: Nick Madrigal’s two-out, two-strike, game-tying hit off of Brewers star Devin Williams in the ninth inning. (.466)

Rizzo Award Cumulative Standings: (Top 5/Bottom 5)

The award is named for Anthony Rizzo, who finished first in this category three of the first four years it was in existeMLB T-Shirts nce and four times overall. He also recorded the highest season total ever at +65.5. The point scale is three points for a Superhero down to negative three points for a Billy Goat.

David Robertson +22.5Nico Hoerner +20.5Christopher Morel +18Scott Effross +17Patrick Wisdom +12.5Daniel Norris/Frank Schwindel -9.5Yan Gomes -10Jason Heyward -15.5Rafael Ortega -16.5

Up Next: The third and final game of the series between these two teams Sunday afternoon at Wrigley Field. Justin Steele (4-7, 3.43) gets the start. The Brewers will counter with Brandon Woodruff (9-3, 3.53). The Cubs will go for the sweep. Not counting the single game in Baltimore, the Cubs have won two of three in their last five series. Let’s see if they can better that at the expense of the Brewers.