A Tip of the Recap – April 8th

The Cubs got their first win of the season today with 2-0 victory over the Cardinals.

The Good

Today was all about good pitching and it was a total team effort that started with Jake Arrieta, who went 7 strong innings giving up no runs on just 3 hits, with 3 walks and 7 Ks. He was a little shaky at times, but pulled through with some timely pitching and made it through unscathed.

The pen was also mighty today with shutdown appearances from Phil Coke, Neil Ramirez, and Pedro Strop before Hector Rondon closed the door with a perfect 9th for his first save.

Starlin Castro failed to come through early in the game but came up big a couple innings later with an RBI single that drove in Anthony Rizzo (who reached via a HBP, then advanced to second on a throwing error by Lynn).

Miguel Montero then drove in Castro with a sac fly to account for all the offense the Cubs would need for the “W” today.

The Bad

The Cubs continue to strike out at an alarming rate after leading all of baseball in spring training K’s. They struck out 11 more times today and only drew 2 walks. Lance Lynn was on top of his game too though, so that didn’t help matters.

The Ugly

Nothing real ugly about this one, besides the entire lack of offense; but on a day where 2 runs was enough, I’m glad it turned out the way it did and the Cubs made a winner out of Jake Arrieta.

On Deck

The Cubs are off tomorrow as they head to Denver to play the Rockies for 3 games this weekend. Friday’s game will start at 3:10 PM (CST) and will be a matchup of Travis Wood for the Cubs going up against Tyler Matzek of the Rockies (a 25 year old lefty that was 6-11 last season with a 4.05 ERA).