2020 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 13

Welcome to the turbo edition of Cubs Heroes and Goats. Some games just don’t produce a lot to talk about. This was one of those. I saw just a little bit of last night’s game, enough to see where it was going.

Tyler Chatwood didn’t pitch horribly, but everything that could go wrong did. The first big inning was boosted by a play that I bet Nico Hoerner makes most of the time. The Royals generally dinked and dunked their way to piling up eight runs off of Chatwood who is no longer one of the league leaders in ERA as a result.

As it turns out, a pitcher who has revived his career by throwing a much higher percentage of his pitches in the zone is not a great matchup for a team that has a swing-early-and-often approach. My only hope is that Tyler can put this one right out of his mind and forget it ever happened. I suspect if he just continues to do the things he’s been doing, there will be much more of the good than the bad.

With Tyler’s fall from the top spot in Heroes and Goats Cumulative Standings, a new leader has emerged. Ian Happ continues to impress at the plate. I will always say that the single biggest thing missing from the 2019 Cubs was Ian Happ. And that will leave me forever hoping, though it is obviously not something you can know for sure, that the net result is that Happ is a much better player for his time in Iowa last year.

That’s all I have to say about last night. Sometimes you just have to turn the page to the next game and move along.

Game 13, August 6: Royals 13, Cubs 2 (10-3)

THREE HEROES:

• Superhero: Ian Happ (.022). Happ had a hit and a walk in four plate appearances.
• Hero: Javier Baez (.009). Javy had a hit in two at bats before leaving the game early (due to blowout).
• Sidekick: Ryan Tepera (.001). Ryan sneaks into H&G for the first time. He threw 1⅓ innings without allowing a hit or a walk. Some nights, that’s all it takes.

THREE GOATS:

• Billy Goat: Tyler Chatwood (-.317). Ouch. 2⅓ innings, 11 hits, eight runs. He didn’t walk anyone and struck out four.
• Goat: Kris Byant (-.052). When the game gets out of hand quickly, your first plate appearance has outsized value on the overall standings. Bryant made the first out for the Cubs and lands here. He was hitless in two at bats.
• Kid: Anthony Rizzo (-.038). Bryant made the first out, Rizzo made the second. Pretty simple math.

WPA Play of the Game: Whit Merrifield took Tyler Chatwood deep with two outs and a runner on second in the second inning to extend the Royals lead to 3-0. (.152)

*Cubs Play of the Game: Tyler Chatwood struck out Adalberto Mondesi with runners on first and second and two outs in the first inning. (.038)

Heroes and Goats Cumulative Standings: (Top 3/Bottom 3)

• Ian Happ 7
• Jeremy Jeffress, Alec Mills, Jason Kipnis 5
• Nico Hoerner -5.5
• Jason Heyward -6
• Kris Bryant -8

Up Next: The Cubs travel to St. Louis to begin a three game set with the Cardinals. Jon Lester makes the start for the Cubs. Daniel Ponce de Leon will start for the Cardinals. Most of the Vegas books have stayed away from this game after the Cardinals have been in quarantine for some time. The odds I did see where mixed on this one. It’s always tough to know how a team will do after a long layoff. We’ve certainly all seen some teams be rusty and other teams be quite sharp in this situation. Of course, with the nature of 2020 there are also questions as to which players will be available for the Cardinals for this series due to COVID-19 protocols.