A beautiful day at the Friendly Confines. (Eugene McIntosh)
Final Score - Cubs 4 Pirates 3
Summary- The Cubs got on the board early with two runs in the bottom of 1 as #Happer Ian Happ scored (after a leadoff walk) on an rbi single from #TheNatural Kris Bryant and #BigFolks Anthony Rizzo (walk) scored on a Joc Pederson ground out. They extended to a 3-0 lead on a leadoff solo bomb from Happ in the bottom of 3. The Pirates got within one in the top of 6 on a two run Colin Moran homerun but the Cubs came right back with a piece of insurance in the bottom of 6 as Bryant scored on an E5 off the bat of #ELMago Javier Baez to give the Cubs a 4-2 lead. A Phillip Evans rbi single in the top of 8 again cut the Cubs lead to one but Rex Brothers got Gregory Polanco to ground into a 4-6-3 inning ending double play to freeze the rally. Craig Kimbrel entered in the top of 9 and shut the door closed to give the Cubs the series win. Quote of the game- "I feel like that's what we can expect from him a lot." - David Ross on Zach Davies outing. Play(s) of the game- Bote to Javy to Riz (4-6-3) double play in the top of 8 with runners on the corners in a one run ballgame was the biggest play of the day. The Good- Outside of the 2 run 6th inning...Zach Davies (1-0) was CRUISING and kept the Pittsburgh hitters off balance with an efficient mix of his fastball/changeup/curveball/sinker combination. Craig Kimbrel had another stellar 1-2-3 inning, picked up his first save of the season and has 5 K's versus six batters in two appearances. The Bad- Three hits against a staff that's looks closer to a Gulf Coast League title than a Central Division title but the only thing that matters is a plus one in the win column. The Huff- Willson Contreras struck out 4 times (Golden Sombrero) and has 6 K's in the first 3 games of the season. Next matchup- A three game set (Mon/Tue/Wed) at Wrigley against a much tougher opponent in the Milwaukee Brewers. 6:40 first pitch tomorrow.