Quite a Game

I cannot say that watching the Cubs home opener was all that much fun.  One Achilles Heel the team has is dealing with soft-tossing lefties who change speeds, especially those they have seen little of in the past.  That was the case last night, when Brandon Finnegan took a no-hitter into the seventh inning before David Ross broke it up with a solid single.  Finnegan hung around to walk Matt Szczur, his fifth walk of the night, before giving way.  The Reds brought in Cotham, a righty, to face Fowler, who walked.  They then summoned Cingrani, a lefty, to face Heywood, who drove in two runs with a solid single to right.

The other thing that is not all that enjoyable is watching Lester pitch when he doesn't have his best stuff or best command.  I know the guy is good and that he is a bulldog and all that, but I just cannot stand all the nibbling and never giving in and whatnot.  Between that and watching the Cubs hitters struggle against Finnegan, things did not get interesting until the bottom of the seventh inning when they got within striking distance.

In the bottom of the eighth, the Cubs regained their poise and patience at the plate, grinding their way to a winning rally.  After Rizzo grounded out, Zobrist walked.  Cingrani then hit Soler with ball four after mixing in a wild pitch to put Zobrist in scoring position anyway.  Although Russell won the game with his home run, the Soler at bat was a key element and really a demonstration of how much this team has bought into the whole ethos of plate discipline.

In any case, the announcers kept wondering why the Reds didn't bring in Jumbo Diaz to face Soler.  They found out when Diaz gave up the game winning homer to Addison Russell on the first pitch he threw.  If there is one thing these young Cubs hitters can do besides take bad pitches, it is to hit straight fastballs like the ones Diaz throws.

That, as they say, is all she wrote.  Rondon came in to strike out the side in the ninth to preserve the win.