Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 12

Some days, when things don't go as you hope, and the breaks are beating the boys... you just need a little cute factor.

Tough loss. But this angel always makes me feel a little better... pic.twitter.com/a4J6v3wZqD

— Dexter Fowler (@DexterFowler) April 17, 2016

Graphs for Game 12 (courtesy of Fangraphs):

Stats for Game 12:

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: The run of pitcher bumps moves up to four as the .099 hitting of Jon Lester is moved out.

• Superhero - Jon Lester (.221). Hard to ask for much more from his outing on Sunday without being really, really greedy.
• Hero - Adam Warren (.050). Finished up the eighth inning without any issues.  And seeing how that's all that was needed to make the second step of the Hero podium...
• Sidekick - Jorge Soler (-.015). ...the second Anti-Hero of the season becomes a little less surprising. In case you were wondering, there was only one Anti-Hero in all of 2015. I'm still blaming cosmic forces.

THE THREE GOATS:

• Billy Goat - Dexter Fowler (-.170). The great play by Trevor Story to rob Fowler of a hit in the ninth certainly hurt, but the flyout in the sixth after Lester's leadoff double did a larger amount of damage. And the only thing that separated him from the third member of the Goats today after that was being the leadoff hitter of the inning.
• Goat - Kris Bryant (-.160). That last swing of the game was a pretty rough one.
• Kid - Ben Zobrist (-.151). Also a member of the sixth-inning missed opportunity club, he provided a brief moment of excitement in the ninth before his flyball was caught just short on the warning track.

RANKINGS THROUGH GAME 12: The march of the starting pitchers continues with Lester moving into a tie for third.