Cubs, Fireworks

The Cubs won nicely to celebrate the July 4th holiday in kind of a laugher.  They scored seven runs in the first two innings, six on the strength of two Bryant home runs, the second a grand slam.  Lost in the shuffle, though, was the realization the team did not have a single baserunner the remainder of the game with the exception of a HBP for Rizzo in the fifth inning.

Clayton Richard was pretty impressive in his Cubs and season debut.  He pitched into the seventh inning.  The Marlins touched him for eight hits, but they were swinging at everything and some of the hits were just grounders that no one could reach.  Richard is a nice pickup for the Cubs.  He was a pretty decent middle or back of the rotation starter for the Padres until he experienced shoulder issues in 2013.  I think he won 14 games for San Diego on two occasions when they were not exactly world-beaters and ran up a lot of innings in the process.

I kind of wonder whether his acquisition and some of Epstein's remarks don't indicate that the Cubs are not going to be major buyers, at least in the pitching market and maybe all around nearing the trade deadline.  The thinking Epstein expressed seemed to be along the lines that no one is likely to catch the Cardinals or if someone does, it will not be because of any combination of pickups that will make up eight or nine games.  So that means the Cubs and several other teams are playing to make a one-game playoff for the wild card spot.  In that case, they have the money pitcher or pitchers to win that game, and, for the matter, enough pitching to get them into the NLCS.  The thinking then is why spend a lot of the prospects you are developing to get another ace pitcher or a bench guy unless that guy is worth four or five wins down the stretch.

The fireworks were nice.  Also, I'm getting used to the scoreboard.  The crowd was good as well, although why a bunch of people started chanting USA in the top of the ninth when Strop was closing out the game, I cannot fathom.  There were, however, no attempts to initiate a wave, which was a big plus.

The picture above is Kris Bryant coming to bat in the fifth inning with Rizzo at first, not, unfortunately, him prior to either of the home runs.  The picture below is, obviously, a shot of the fireworks.