CI Recap (6/23/17) – Marlins 2, Cubs 0: Cubs Bungee Ride Around .500 Continues

After an 10-run beat down of the Marlins Thursday the Cubs looked to pick up where they left off Friday. This time, however the Northsiders’ offense abandoned them despite a solid pitching effort.

Giancarlo Stanton struck the first blow. taking John Lackey out to deep center in the 3rd inning.

Lackey pitched well, as did his counterpart Jose Urena, who kept the Cubs off the board in his six innings of work.

Dee Gordon hit a bloop single off of Lackey in the bottom of the 6th, then stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error by catcher Miguel Montero. He scored on a Christian Yelich sacrifice fly to increase the Miami lead to 2-0.

AJ Ramos closed out the shutout victory in the 9th inning.

Stats That Matter

• John Lackey was very good on Friday night: 6 IP, 2 R, 1 ER, 3 H, 4 K, 2 BB. Only allowing two runs in six innings will get you a lot of wins, but that wasn’t the case this time.
• Ian Happ is really hot right now and had two of the Cubs six hits on Friday. The versatile Happ has raised his batting average to .256 and his offense has been excellent with Ben Zobrist injured.

Bottom Line

It was another step back for Chicago after a good game Thursday. The inconsistency this team has shown appears to be a feature of the 2017 model, not a bug.

On Deck

The Cubs look to rebound Saturday afternoon in South Beach. Jon Lester matches up with Justin Nicolino at 3:10, with ABC-7 on the broadcast.