Dreadful pitching. Horrible defense.
Jake Arrieta allowed the first four to reach tonight, with the fourth being Andrew McCutchen striking a grand slam. It was too perfect(ly awful). Once again, Arrieta could not finish the 2nd inning. His area in the rotation was already overdue, and with Trevor Williams now back and pitching tonight, it would be relatively easy to have him take the Sunday start on routine rest. Even if it was a short getaway for him, its not as if the Cubs are getting 5+ out of Arrieta at the moment. Its all sad and frustrating, but we have to be real.
Williams looked better than Arrieta, though he was plainly shaking off some rust. Rex Brothers was functional, and Brad Wieck once again looked dominant– in his very first inning, anyhow– basically exclusively with the four-seamer (its remarkable). The defense didnt help anyone tonight, but 15 runs … yeah, thats some rough pitching.
It was an offensive surge, though the majority of the Cubs scoring came long after the game was over. Javy Báez continues to look like a various person out there, remaining on pitches so well (including and specifically the ones he sent out 422 and 408 feet tonight). And hi, Robinson Chirinos struck his very first homer with the Cubs– he signed with the org as a teen 21 years back– so thats kinda enjoyable.
But the tale of this one is the possible goodbye …

Terrible pitching. Horrible defense. Scored a decent number of runs, I guess?

Full box rating.