Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 8

And someone might want to tell John Lackey that he's doing the "Hey, I'm on first!" move wrong.

Charades! What is John Lackey doing here? pic.twitter.com/DuPnN8mOD2

— Randall J. Sanders (@RandallJSanders) April 14, 2016

Graphs for Game 8 (courtesy of Fangraphs):

Stats for Game 8:

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 / Hero #1 (tie) - Kris Bryant (.106). Drove in the first run of the night with his bases-loaded walk -- one of 10 the Cubs took on the evening -- and hit his first major-league homer ever in the month of April for good measure.
• Superhero / Hero #2 (tie) - Miguel Montero (.106). Drove in the second run of the night with his single in the first and snuck into a tie thanks to a wild pitch from Keyvius Sampson.
• Sidekick - Dexter Fowler (.102). Was in line for the top spot on the night but slipped to the bottom step with his bases-loaded strikeout in the third.

THE THREE GOATS:

• Billy Goat - Jason Heyward (-.017). He did have the two-run single in the fifth, and the diving catch that he made in the fourth was nothing short of spectacular, but when 11 batters come to the plate in the first inning and one batter makes two outs while everyone else is part of the hit and walk parade... it's kind of a lonely feeling.
• Goat - Matt Szczur (.000). That's right... the zero-Goat makes its rare appearance early this season, even more rare because it wasn't the result of a pitcher bump.  There were only four such appearances of the zero-Goat in 2015.  And as you can tell, this is only the second spot on the podium, meaning we also have...
• Kid - Neil Ramirez (+.001). ...yes, it's the almost-mythical unicorn of the Heroes and Goats world: the Anti-Goat! All the poor guy did was finish the game and it unfortunately landed him at the bottom step.  There were three anti-Goat sightings last year, at least one of them the result of a pitcher bump, so this is also a pretty rare treat.  And an unfair one, I completely agree.  But sometimes the WPA gods are wicked and cruel and demand sacrifices.  And they're not big on live chickens.

RANKINGS THROUGH GAME 8: Montero leapfrogs the cluster-o'-starters to take the top spot while Heyward sinks back to the bottom of the chart.