Friday, March 30, 2018

As Advertised

The Cubs opened the season with an 8-4 win over the Marlins.  Not that the Marlins are likely not to lose t least 90 games this year, but the Cubs dominated from the start.  Ian Happ opened the game with a leadoff first-pitch home run.  They batted around that inning to add two more runs, mostly with patient at-bats resulting in a bunch of walks and hit-batsmen.

Later on the Cubs added home runs by Rizzo and Schwarber as well as some clutch hits by Russell and LaStella.  The latter's pinch hit double clinched the game.

The bullpen looked good in relief of Lester who was pretty awful through three plus innings.  Lester lacked command and seemed to be pitching with zero confidence.  Besides Lester's lackluster performance, the only other glitch on the day was Schwarber's rather adventurous fourth inning in left field where he pretty much played a leadoff double into a triple, nearly killing himself in the process, then overran a routine single.  You really cannot say that those plays cost any runs as the Marlins would have scored anyway, but it doesn't inspire a lot of confidence either.

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