Cubs slug their way to series win over Mariners |
CHICAGO - Any time you win six out of 10 games in baseball, it has to be considered a success. If you maintain that pace throughout the season, it will give you 96 wins. Not only is that enough to make the postseason, but in most cases, enough to win the division.
That is where the Chicago Cubs (6-4) are sitting right now, as they have gotten off to a better start than most expected. Looking to make it two in a row and another series win against the Seattle Mariners (4-8), the Cubs turned to a different part of their game that is vastly underrated. With the Wind blowing out of Wrigley Field, the Cubs found themselves down 7-0 after just one plus inning of play. However, this is Wrigley Field, and no game is over until it is over. The Cubs took that to heart and ripped off an eight-run third capped off by the Nelson Velazquez Grand Slam and then went on to add plenty of runs later as the Cubs picked up the 14-9 win. While a large chunk of this game was successful, there was one part that was not, and it hinders on starting pitcher Hayden Wesneski. After winning the No. 5 job out of camp, he has been anything, but himself in two starts, which has to be concerning if you are the Cubs. Not only did he labor through 1 1/3 innings after allowing seven runs, but he has no idea where the ball is going right now and finished the game with four walks and no strikeouts. Granted, five of the seven runs were unearned, but he needs to figure something out and soon. You saw the command issues right from the start as he walked Ty France with one out in the first before serving up a two-run shot to Eugenio Suarez. That is another part of his game that has been alarming, as he has allowed three homers in two starts. Throw in a Cal Raleigh double and a walk to Jarrod Kelenic later in the first, and Wesneski was on the ropes, but found a way to get through it. Wesneski wasn't so lucky in the second inning, as Seattle busted the game wide open with a massive inning. What started with a walk and a pair of errors, the Mariners had the bases loaded with no outs. That is when the damage began to get done, with France picking up an RBI single ahead of the Suarez sacrifice fly as Seattle extended their lead to 7-0. Back-to-back RBI singles from Raleigh and Teoscar Hernandez followed that up while another walk continued to keep the pressure on Wesneski, but David Ross had seen enough and went to Michael Rucker out of the first. Despite allowing an RBI fielders choice to Kolton Wong, Rucker buttoned down the hatches and gave the Cubs 2 2/3 innings of one-run ball. Trailing by seven in the second, Yan Gomes put the Cubs on the board with an RBI single, but it was in the third inning when all the real damage started. Looking to up the five-run frame that Seattle had, Dansby Swanson started things off with one of his four hits. Two batters later, it was Trey Mancini hitting his first homer of 2023 to bring the Cubs a bit closer, 7-3. Boom Boom! 💥@TreyMancini crushes his first home run as Cub! pic.twitter.com/UcSN08qSuu The line continued to move with Cody Bellinger picking up a single, Patrick Wisdom working a walk, and Eric Hosmer picking up a huge single to make things 7-4. With Gomes picking up his second hit in as many innings, the Cubs loaded the bases with one out and a chance for more. This was one of their biggest issues a season ago, but not this year, as the Cubs are hitting better than .360 with runners in scoring position this season. They continued that trend as the recently promoted Velazquez massacred a fastball over the left field fence for the grand slam to put the Cubs in front for good 8-7. Nelson Velazquez - Chicago Cubs (1) pic.twitter.com/K6E65Q4HuD Throw in another Swanson RBI knock, and the Cubs capped off their eight-run inning with them in front 9-7. Seattle did their best to keep things close with Kelenic adding another homer in the fifth, but only making things 9-8 with the Cubs offense ready for more. RBI singles from Swanson and Mancini in the sixth pushed the lead to 11-8, and their offense was on fire. Swanson would then remove himself from the game for what the team is called general soreness, and he would later acknowledge the same thing. At this point, it was only a matter of time until the Cubs bats cooled off, but in the sixth, you had Nico Hoerner rip a two-run double followed by a Nick Madrigal single as the Cubs pushed their lead to 14-8. Seattle pushed one more run across Julian Merryweather in the eighth to make things 14-9, but it was not enough to top the Cubs on this night. Following the short outing from Wesneski, the Cubs bullpen was brilliant as they allowed just two runs in the final 7 2/3 innings to help spark the comeback. The offense took care of the rest by pounding out 18 hits, including four from Swanson, three from Velazquez, and two from Gomes, Hoerner, Mancini, and Bellinger.
Cool postgame interview by Taylor of Nelly Velazquez, who says all the right things. @Cubs #GoCubsGo #FlyTheW pic.twitter.com/ciuSLGMs39
— Billy Krumb (@ClubhouseCancer) April 12, 2023
The hat is back. Passed from Nico Hoerner to Nelson Velázquez after his go-ahead grand slam tonight. pic.twitter.com/7naZMjroWh
— Maddie Lee (@maddie_m_lee) April 12, 2023
GO #CUBS GO, HEY CHICAGO WHADDYA SAY THE CUBS ARE GONNA WIN TODAY!!’
— AJB 🇨🇦🇺🇸🇮🇳 (@Arjun_AJB15) April 12, 2023
What a night!! #NextStartsHere pic.twitter.com/BKmqem5OC2
This is how the crowd at Wrigley Field sounded a few blocks away as Nelson Velazquez hit a Grand Slam in the 3rd inning as the @cubs erase a seven-run deficit to take an 8-7 lead over the Mariners. pic.twitter.com/8l7AIPr3CQ
— Larry Hawley (@HawleySports) April 12, 2023
