2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 55

May 2024 is going to be remembered for losing Cubs baseball after a March/April that saw them at 18-12 to start the season. I don’t know that we’ll remember the nuance. That nuance cuts both ways. On the positive side, even when the Cubs have lost, their starting pitching has been generally terrific. The way this group has thrown, they don’t need an elite offense to stack wins. On the down side, over the last 11 games, the Cubs have won three. Those three wins consist of a walk off that would have been an out had the catcher held the ball, a walk off ground ball that didn’t leave the infield and now an extra inning win arising out of a blown save.

That’s a fancy way of saying that the starters have pitched well enough to support a team with a much better record but the bullpen and hitting woes almost saw this team lose 11 straight. Or at the very least, need more innings to win any of those three wins. But that remains the point, a strong starting rotation gives you a chance to win nearly every night, even when the team isn’t playing well. The results can be frustrating though. Because the games are close, all of the mistakes are that much more painful. But, if the starters can hold up their end of the bargain, this team is going to turn things back around and squarely be one of the postseason contenders.

Looking less in the abstract and more directly at Tuesday night’s game, the trade that brought Ben Brown to the Cubs back on August 2, 2022 is looking like it could be one of those trades that will be discussed for years. Four months of David Robertson bought the Cubs a pitcher who looks like a real weapon. I remain intrigued by the destruction that Ben can be capable of at the end of a baseball game. But on Tuesday night, he showed the potential that he has as a starter. Twenty-three Brewers walked to the plate to face him and 10 of them struck out. Two were walked. The other 11 put the ball in play, but none of them fell in for hits.

Seven shutout innings. Seven no-hit innings. An opportunity for Cubs fans to point out to Brewers fans that the park sometimes referred to as Wrigley North has only seen two no-hitters and they were both by Cubs pitchers. Ben can be a force of nature. His stuff is electric.

The ebb and flow of baseball can be a fun thing to watch over time. We’ve watched baseball go through guys who throw three, four, five and more different pitches. But then sometimes the pendulum swings the other way and we see guys be successful largely throwing two pitches. Brown and Monday’s starter Justin Steele both lean heavily on just two pitches. That’s one of the fascinating things about baseball. There isn’t just one way to get things done.

I don’t even know where to begin to digest the 10th inning of yesterday’s game. After nine innings of a pitcher’s duel, the two teams combined to score eight runs in the 10th. The free runner in the 10th is certainly designed to create offense, but eight runs is an aberration regardless. I’m just happy the Cubs strung together some runs, didn’t let another strong start go entirely to waste, and maybe come out of this one with a little momentum.

Let’s find three stars.

1. That first one is obviously Ben Brown. Regardless of how the game finished, this one was his night.
2. Michael Busch gets my second spot. A pair of hits, a pair of runs batted in and a walk. Had this game ended 1-0, Michael would have joined Brown in history with the distinction of homering in a 1-0 game.
3. It’s been a very rough go of it for Cubs catchers. So I’ll call it out when there is some progress. Miguel Amaya had a pair of singles in this one.

Game 55, May 28: Cubs 6, Brewers 3 (28-27)

Fangraphs

Reminder: Heroes and Goats are determined by WPA scores and are in no way subjective.

THREE HEROES:

• Superhero: Ben Brown (.501). 7 IP, 23 batters, 2 BB, 10 K

*Brown registers the fifth largest WPA game score of the year for the Cubs.

• Hero: Michael Busch (.105). 2-4, HR, BB, 2 RBI, R
• Sidekick: Christopher Morel (.078). 0-1, 3 BB

THREE GOATS:

• Billy Goat: Hector Neris (-.294). IP, H, BB, ER (W 5-0)
• Goat: Nico Hoerner (-.095). 0-5
• Kid: Ian Happ (-.074). 1-5, 2B, 2 RBI, R

WPA Play of the Game: Willy Adames’ single in the ninth inning with two outs and a runner on second that tied the game at one. (.354)

*Cubs Play of the Game: Mike Tauchman’s RBI single starting the 10th inning, with a kudos to the baserunning of Luis Vazquez. (.169)

Cubs Player of the Game:

Yesterday’s Winner: With basically one choice for the second straight day, Justin Steele picks up 165 of 169 votes.

Rizzo Award Cumulative Standings: (Top 5/Bottom 5)

The award is named for Anthony Rizzo, who finished first in this category three of the first four years it was in existence and four times overall. He also recorded the highest season total ever at +65.5. The point scale is three points for a Superhero down to negative three points for a Billy Goat.

• Shōta Imanaga +15
• Ben Brown +14
• Javier Assad +10.5
• Jameson Taillon +9
• Mark Leiter Jr. +6
• Matt Mervis/Christopher Morel/Nico Hoerner -6
• Miguel Amaya -8
• Adbert Alzolay -10
• Kyle Hendricks -20

*Ben Brown moves within one of the lead on the positive side. On the negative side, a jumble of players tied for fourth worst.

Up Next: The third of a four-game set. Shōta Imanaga (5-0, 0.84, 53⅔ IP) gets the start for the Cubs after they gave him a few extra days to reset. He’s had a historic first nine starts of his career. Among the things that have happened so far, this is the 10th different team he is facing in 10 starts. No one is getting a second shot to see his unusual stuff.

26-year-old Bryse Wilson (3-1, 2.86, 44 IP) gets the start for the Brewers. The fourth round pick of the Braves in 2016 will be making his 14th appearance an seventh start of the year for the Brewers. The last time he pitched, the Brewers used an opener to face four batters in front of him and then Wilson finished the first six innings, allowing six hits and a walk while allowing two runs to the Red Sox. He struck out seven. The Cubs saw him three times out of the bullpen in 2023. They managed a pair of hits and a run against him in four innings of work. But none of the Cubs have seen much of him.

Let’s make it two straight.