2021 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 16

Tuesday night’s game was a breath of fresh air after the struggles of the early season for the Cubs. Jake Arrieta had a solid outing on a cold night, allowing only one run over five innings of work. The bullpen wasn’t particularly dominant, dealing with traffic all night long, but held the Mets scoreless over the game’s final four innings.

The offense wasn’t explosive, but it was effective. It clawed out three runs, something we haven’t seen a lot of this season or in recent seasons. The ability to score runs without the benefit of home runs is important. It was just one game, but in this one game, it looked surprisingly effective.

The real test now is going to be to get at least one more win out of this series. The Cubs haven’t won a series since the opening series of the season. By and large, they’ve been backsliding and sinking to the bottom of the NL Central standings. But, it’s early and the division is expected to be a competitive one that no one runs away with. So there is certainly time to correct course and get going in the right direction. We can only hope that this game is a step in that direction.

With that, we’ll turn our attention to Heroes and Goats. As you’ll recall, the Heroes and Goats are determined by WPA (Win Probability Added) and are not in any way subjective. Many days WPA will not tell the story of what happened, but often it can give at least a glimpse to who rose to the occasion in a high-leverage moment or who didn’t get the job done in that moment. With that, let’s get to the results.

Game 16, April 20: Cubs 3, Mets 1 (7-9)

THREE HEROES:

• Superhero: Jake Arrieta (.185). 5IP (21 batters faced), 3H, 3BB, 1R, 4K, WP (W 3-1)
• Hero: Erik Sogard (.155). 2-3, BB, RBI, R
• Sidekick: Willson Contreras (.141). 0-4, BB, RBI, 2K

THREE GOATS:

• Billy Goat: Joc Pederson (-.074). 0-4, 3K
• Goat: Javier Baez (-.054). 0-4, 4K
• Kid: Anthony Rizzo (-.047). 0-3, BB, K

WPA Play of the Game: Craig Kimbrel allowed a single and two walks in the ninth inning. Thus, with a 3-1 lead, Francisco Lindor stepped to the plate with the bases loaded. Kimbrel induced a weak ground ball to Anthony Rizzo for the final out of the game. (.142)

*Mets Play of the Game: Luis Guillorme batted with runners on first and second with only one out in the ninth against Kimbrel. He singled, loading the bases.

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

• Willson Contreras +10.5
• Craig Kimbrel +9
• Dillon Maples +4
• David Bote -4
• Anthony Rizzo -5
• Zach Davies -6

Up Next: These same two clubs meet this evening in game two of a three-game set. Zach Davies is scheduled to start for the Cubs.