Hey, that’s a nice win against a good team. I’ll take it, I’ll take it.
With the wind blowing in and the temperatures well into the 30’s, it wasn’t a great night to hit. You could tell the ball wouldn’t carry overall, and most batters had a hard time lifting anyway. Taking advantage of his advantage, Jake Arrieta relied heavily on his sinker, which later mixed in many more changes to the lefts in his solid five-inning performance. It was probably the best he’s watched here in the regular season so far this year.
The Cubs managed to score their three runs on a gift error by the Mets, some great baserunning by Jason Heyward (and an Eric Sogard single), then a basesloaded walk that earned a bat flip:
Willson Contreras’ two-out, RBI, bat-flipped walk… in April. #Cubes
(🎥: @BuienRadarNL) pic.twitter.com/zgUQ24Zm7v
– Michael Cerami (@Michael_Cerami) April 21, 2021
There wasn’t much else to speak of offensively for the Cubs, with Javy Báez striking out four times and Joc Pederson striking out three times. If they hit back to back in the middle of the order, whoo baby, right now it can be tricky to watch.
That kept the game pretty tight, and the Cubs got excellent relief performance getting it up. Most of the drama came in the 9th when a pair of Craig Kimbrel walked and a single loaded the bases with only one out. But Kimbrel retired Brandon Nimmo and got a grounder from Francisco Lindor to end it.
Full box score.