The Piebutts came to Wrigley for a three game set. The Cubs swept the series and remain in first place. Overall record is now 7-2.
July 31st:
Cubs win 6-3
Yu Darvish bounced back with a solid start, pitching 6 shutout innings. He scattered two hits and a walk. The bullpen was less effective. Kimbrel, in particular, struggled, giving up back to back solo home runs before getting three sharply hit outs. All's well that ends well.
Offensively, The Cubs scored 5. Jason Kipnis hit a solo home run, and both Rizzo and Heyward had two RBIs. Enough runs to win.
August 1st:
Cubs win 4-3
Tyler Chatwood had his best start as a Cub, pitching shutout ball into the 7th inning. He scattered 3 hits and 2 walks, and struck out a whopping 11 Pirates. Good stuff from Chatty. The bullpen again gave up runs, with Kyle Ryan struggling before Wick shut the door.
Offensively, Ian Happ, Kyle Schwarber, and Javy Baez all hit home runs. No runs on non-dingers, so it was a total power show. Four runs was enough to get it done.
August 2nd:
Cubs win 2-1
The Cubs played their first extra inning game, and won in 11 innings.
Jon Lester had a quality start, throwing 6 innings of 1 run ball. Another solid start. The Cubs bullpen was better, pitching 5 innings and giving up no runs. We didn't see that coming.
Offensively, there wasn't as much, as the Cubs had just 4 hits. Kyle Schwarber had an RBI hit in the 5th, then nothing until the 11th. With Bote being the designated runner, Anthony Rizzo hit a sacrifice fly. Then Javy Baez hit a liner up the middle to win it in walk off fashion.
Sparklespants record 3-0 on Pronk's hiney, overall 7-1.