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Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 8

It was another impressive win on Wednesday night, but with everyone contributing, just who ended up where on the podiums?

"I spy, with my little eye... all kinds of podium and poll candidates."
"I spy, with my little eye... all kinds of podium and poll candidates."
David Banks/Getty Images

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

Graphs for Game 8 (courtesy of Fangraphs):

Game 8 Chart 2016

Stats for Game 8:

Pitcher

IP

H

HR

ER

BB

SO

pLI

WPA

J Lackey

6.2

6

0

2

3

7

0.71

.028

C Richard

1

1

0

0

0

0

0.07

.003

T Cahill

0.1

0

0

0

0

0

0.05

.002

N Ramirez

1

0

0

0

1

0

0.01

.001

Total

9

7

0

2

4

7

0.56

.033

Batter

AB

R

H

HR

RBI

BB

SO

pLI

WPA

M Montero

3

3

1

0

1

2

1

0.5

.106

K Bryant

3

2

1

1

2

2

0

0.62

.106

D Fowler

4

1

1

0

0

0

2

0.75

.102

A Russell

3

0

1

0

1

1

0

0.45

.094

J Lackey

3

0

1

0

1

1

2

0.36

.040

J Soler

2

1

2

0

1

1

0

0.67

.023

B Zobrist

4

1

0

0

0

1

1

0.38

.008

A Rizzo

4

1

0

0

0

1

1

0.4

.005

M Szczur

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

.000

J Heyward

4

0

1

0

2

1

2

0.56

-.017

Total

31

9

8

1

8

10

9

0.52

.467

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.

Heroes

1st

2nd

3rd

Total

Miguel Montero

1.5

1

0.5

7

Anthony Rizzo

1

0.5

1.5

5.5

Addison Russell

1

1

0

5

Dexter Fowler

0

1

2

4

Jake Arrieta

1

0

0

3

Jason Hammel

1

0

0

3

Jon Lester

1

0

0

3

Kyle Hendricks

1

0

0

3

Kris Bryant

0.5

0.5

0

2.5

Adam Warren

0

1

0

2

Jason Heyward

0

1

0

2

Jorge Soler

0

1

0

2

Matt Szczur

0

1

0

2

Ben Zobrist

0

0

1

1

Hector Rondon

0

0

1

1

Justin Grimm

0

0

1

1

Tommy La Stella

0

0

1

1

Goats

1st

2nd

3rd

Total

Addison Russell

2

0

1

7

Jason Heyward

1

2

0

7

Anthony Rizzo

0.5

1.5

1

5.5

Jorge Soler

1

1

0

5

Ben Zobrist

1

0

1

4

John Lackey

1

0

0

3

Trevor Cahill

1

0

0

3

Kris Bryant

0.5

0.5

0

2.5

Matt Szczur

0

1

0

2

Miguel Montero

0

1

0

2

Pedro Strop

0

1

0

2

Dexter Fowler

0

0

1

1

Jon Lester

0

0

1

1

Kyle Schwarber

0

0

1

1

Neil Ramirez

0

0

1

1

Tommy La Stella

0

0

1

1

Overall

Hero

Goat

+/-

Miguel Montero

7

2

5

Dexter Fowler

4

1

3

Jake Arrieta

3

0

3

Jason Hammel

3

0

3

Kyle Hendricks

3

0

3

Jon Lester

3

1

2

Adam Warren

2

0

2

Hector Rondon

1

0

1

Justin Grimm

1

0

1

Anthony Rizzo

5.5

5.5

0

Kris Bryant

2.5

2.5

0

Matt Szczur

2

2

0

Tommy La Stella

1

1

0

Kyle Schwarber

0

1

-1

Neil Ramirez

0

1

-1

Addison Russell

5

7

-2

Pedro Strop

0

2

-2

Jorge Soler

2

5

-3

Ben Zobrist

1

4

-3

John Lackey

0

3

-3

Trevor Cahill

0

3

-3

Jason Heyward

2

7

-5