Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 13

Fun Fact: With the win on Monday night, John Lackey became the 16th pitcher in MLB history to record a win against all 30 teams.  The last pitcher to do it before him was Tim Hudson on July 26, 2015.

Graphs for Game 13 (courtesy of Fangraphs):

Stats for Game 13:

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 - John Lackey (.383).  In each of the past three seasons he's had two outings where he posted a game score of 75 or better; Monday night's game score was 79.
• Hero - Dexter Fowler (.213).  The power of the cute factor compels him!
• Sidekick - Jorge Soler (.064).  It's the first "fruit basket" podium spot of the season -- a podium spot earned in large part because of the actions of another player -- with Aledmys Diaz being the gift recipient this time around thanks to his errant throw after a grounder ate him up in the seventh.

THE THREE GOATS: For an unprecedented fifth straight game -- at least in the time that I have been writing this feature -- there's another bump on the podiums as Lackey's -.033 hitting is moved out.  There were a few times last season where there were three consecutive games with a bump, but five games is definitely uncharted territory.

• Billy Goat - Jason Heyward (-.081).  He had a couple of really nice plays in the outfield once again. Unfortunately those nifty plays didn't help his WPA.
• Goat - Ben Zobrist (-.064).  Had the double in the eighth, but by then it was already a 5-0 game.
• Kid - Addison Russell (-.024).  Once again victimized by the double play ball, this time of the 1-4-3 variety.

RANKINGS THROUGH GAME 13: Lackey finds himself back at the starting line while Heyward and Zobrist both continue their slumps further into the cellar.