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Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 63

When you're losing to Pittsburgh after six innings, it's normally over.

The picture of a pitcher who's not on his game.
The picture of a pitcher who's not on his game.
Justin K. Aller

The silver lining: It allows for a quicker start to writing game recaps. So there's that.

Graphs for Game 63 (courtesy of Fangraphs):

Game-63

Stats for Game 63:

Pitcher

IP

H

HR

ER

BB

SO

pLI

WPA

C Villanueva

2

0

0

0

2

3

0.39

0.037

J Grimm

1

0

0

0

0

1

0.13

0.009

J Hammel

5

11

1

4

2

6

1.07

-0.305

Total

8

11

1

4

4

10

0.82

-0.259

Batter

AB

R

H

HR

RBI

BB

SO

pLI

WPA

L Valbuena

4

1

3

0

0

0

1

1.32

0.104

J Baker

4

0

1

0

1

0

3

1.26

0.094

J Ruggiano

3

0

1

0

0

1

0

0.79

0.089

A Rizzo

2

0

0

0

0

1

2

1.31

-0.003

M Olt

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.43

-0.010

E Bonifacio

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.77

-0.018

J Hammel

2

0

0

0

0

0

1

0.9

-0.046

D Barney

4

0

0

0

1

0

0

1.22

-0.072

C Coghlan

5

0

0

0

0

0

0

0.97

-0.118

N Schierholtz

3

1

0

0

0

1

1

2.32

-0.121

S Castro

4

0

0

0

0

0

1

1.51

-0.139

Total

33

2

5

0

2

3

9

1.26

-0.241

Writer's Note: The daily selections of the three Heroes and three Goats are based solely on the top three and bottom three WPA scores for the game. The selections are not based on my subjective opinion.

THE THREE HEROES:

  • Superhero - Luis Valbuena (.104). Third time among the Heroes in the last four games. He might be on a roll.
  • Hero - John Baker (.094). The early single to score Valbuena carried a lot of weight. The three subsequent whiffs weren't all that useful, though.
  • Sidekick - Justin Ruggiano (.089). Similar to Valbuena, three times on base makes the podium. He should probably send a fruit basket to Pedro Alvarez for the Matt Garza-like throw on the routine grounder.

THE THREE GOATS:

  • Billy Goat - Jason Hammel (-.305). Could have been -- and probably should have been -- a lot worse.
  • Goat - Starlin Castro (-.139). You have to expect the WPA gods to notice you if you don't advance any runners in four chances.
  • Kid - Nate Schierholtz (-.121). Speaking of runners left on base... The only thing that saved him was the walk in the second.

UPDATED RANKINGS THROUGH GAME 63 (Changes in Bold):

Heroes

1st

2nd

3rd

Total

Anthony Rizzo

8

4

7

39

Starlin Castro

7.5

4.5

5.5

37

Luis Valbuena

6

6

2

32

Welington Castillo

5

3

2

23

Jason Hammel

5

3

2

23

Jeff Samardzija

6

1

2

22

Nate Schierholtz

3

5

2

21

Emilio Bonifacio

1

7

1

18

Travis Wood

3

3

1

16

Mike Olt

3

2

3

16

Junior Lake

3

1

3

14

Justin Ruggiano

0.5

4.5

2

12.5

Edwin Jackson

4

0

0

12

Darwin Barney

2.5

1.5

1

11.5

Brian Schlitter

1

2.5

3

11

Ryan Kalish

3

0

1

10

Jake Arrieta

1

2

0

7

Hector Rondon

0

0

6.5

6.5

John Baker

0

2

2

6

Justin Grimm

0

1

4

6

James Russell

0

1

4

6

Wesley Wright

0.5

1.5

0.5

5

Zac Rosscup

0

2

0

4

Chris Coghlan

0

2

0

4

Ryan Sweeney

0

1

2

4

Pedro Strop

0

1

2

4

Neil Ramirez

0

0.5

2.5

3.5

Carlos Villanueva

0

1

1

3

Blake Parker

0

0

1

1

Goats

1st

2nd

3rd

Total

Starlin Castro

4

4.5

11

32

Nate Schierholtz

4

7

4

30

Mike Olt

5

3

4

25

Emilio Bonifacio

1

8

4

23

Justin Grimm

6

0

1

19

Edwin Jackson

4

3

1

19

Junior Lake

3

4

2

19

Jason Hammel

5

1

0

17

Travis Wood

3

3

2

17

Welington Castillo

2

4

3

17

Anthony Rizzo

0

6

4

16

Carlos Villanueva

4

0

1

13

James Russell

2

2

3

13

Luis Valbuena

0

3.5

4.5

11.5

Jose Veras

2

1

1

9

Jeff Samardzija

2

1

1

9

Hector Rondon

2

1

1

9

John Baker

2

0

3

9

Justin Ruggiano

1

3

0

9

Ryan Kalish

1

2

2

9

Wesley Wright

2

0

2

8

Jake Arrieta

2

0

1

7

Brian Schlitter

1

2

0

7

Pedro Strop

1

1

1

6

Chris Coghlan

1

1

1

6

Eli Whiteside

1

0

2

5

Darwin Barney

0

2

1

5

Ryan Sweeney

1

0

1.5

4.5

Neil Ramirez

1

0

0

3

Blake Parker

0

0

1

1

Overall

Hero

Goat

+/-

Anthony Rizzo

39

16

23

Luis Valbuena

32

11.5

20.5

Jeff Samardzija

22

9

13

Darwin Barney

11.5

5

6.5

Jason Hammel

23

17

6

Welington Castillo

23

17

6

Starlin Castro

37

32

5

Brian Schlitter

11

7

4

Zac Rosscup

4

0

4

Justin Ruggiano

12.5

9

3.5

Ryan Kalish

10

9

1

Neil Ramirez

3.5

3

0.5

Jake Arrieta

7

7

0

Blake Parker

1

1

0

Ryan Sweeney

4

4.5

-0.5

Travis Wood

16

17

-1

Chris Coghlan

4

6

-2

Pedro Strop

4

6

-2

Hector Rondon

6.5

9

-2.5

John Baker

6

9

-3

Wesley Wright

5

8

-3

Emilio Bonifacio

18

23

-5

Junior Lake

14

19

-5

Eli Whiteside

0

5

-5

Edwin Jackson

12

19

-7

James Russell

6

13

-7

Nate Schierholtz

21

30

-9

Mike Olt

16

25

-9

Jose Veras

0

9

-9

Carlos Villanueva

3

13

-10

Justin Grimm

6

19

-13

Valbuena continues his climb toward the top of the plus/minus chart, while Castro maintains his position on the top of the Goat leaderboard.