2021 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 37

The Cubs continued their American League road trip in Detroit on Friday night. They scored first with a familiar face providing the offense. Kris Bryant hit a two-run homer to start the scoring. He was later on base when Anthony Rizzo slugged a two-run double as the Cubs built a 4-0 lead. Bryant is getting ready to put one of those prestigious first quarter of the season NL MVP awards in his trophy cabinet. (What, there isn’t really an award for that?) The Tigers did get a couple of runs back in the sixth on solo homers, but the Cubs snapped their three game losing streak.

This Cubs team has been streaky this year, so perhaps they can string together a couple more wins this weekend in Detroit. The Tigers have been one of the worst teams in baseball over the first quarter of the season. Let’s hope they stay that way through the weekend.

Nico Hoerner and Jake Arrieta both came off of the injured list to start. Arrieta had a pretty good performance. Hoerner didn’t contribute to the scoring, but it was good to see him back just the same. Dan Winkler also came off the injured list, but didn’t get into this one. Maybe, just maybe the Cubs are starting to get healthy. Certainly, this would be a good time in the season to win some games and stay close behind an emergent Cardinals team that just can’t seem to lose right now (though they did Friday night).

Rather than worry about how everyone else is doing, let’s just enjoy this Cubs win and let’s get right to the numbers. 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. And now, let’s get to the results.

Game 37, May 14: Cubs 4 at Tigers 2 (18-19)

THREE HEROES:

• Superhero: Kris Bryant (.177). 1-3, HR, BB, 2RBI, 2R, K
• Hero: Jake Arrieta (.173). 6 IP (20 batters faced), 4H, BB, 2R, K (W 4-3)
• Sidekick: Craig Kimbrel (.094). IP (3 batters faced), 0H, 0BB, 0R, 3K (Sv 7)

THREE GOATS:

• Billy Goat: Nico Hoerner (-.106). 0-4, DP
• Goat: Matt Duffy (-.103). 0-4, K, DP
• Kid: Willson Contreras (-.062). 1-5, R, 2K

WPA Play of the Game: With a runner on first and one out and the game still scoreless, Kris Bryant stepped to the plate. With one mighty swing, he gave the Cubs a two-run lead. (.192)

*Tigers Play of the Game: With two outs and the bases empty, Robbie Grossman hit the second of two sixth-inning homers off of Jake Arrieta to cut the Cubs lead to 4-2. (.083)

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

• Craig Kimbrel +11
• Kris Bryant +10
• Jake Marisnick +7
• Ian Happ -7
• David Bote/Zach Davies -8

Up Next: Game two of a three-game set is Saturday afternoon. Trevor Williams is scheduled to make the start for the Cubs as they look for back-to-back road victories.