Six straight wins: Wicks return help Cubs sweep Nationals |
WASHINGTON DC - Sunday marked the beginning of September, as September 1 is a day known as the September call-ups in baseball. This is when each team can add two players to their active roster, one a hitter and one a pitcher. Regarding the hitters, it was an obvious choice for the Chicago Cubs (71-66), as they recalled
Miles Mastrobuoni to be used as a bench player.
Pitching was an entirely different discussion, as several guys were worth a call-up, including Caleb Kilian, who has been pitching lights out. However, with left-hander Jordan Wicks finishing his relief tour through the Minors, the Cubs elected to call him back up and immediately inserted him into the starting rotation for the series finale against the Washington Nationals (61-76) at Nationals Park. With the addition of Wicks back into the rotation, it does appear that Kyle Hendricks has made his final start with the Cubs, barring injuries, and will again be back in the pen the rest of the way. Making his first MLB start in three months, Wicks was far from perfect, but still pitched well enough to get the win as he allowed one run in five innings. He walked zero and struck out zero as the Cubs offense backed him with 14 runs of support in a 14-1 win. That gives this offense 99 runs in their last 11 games as they continue to mash the baseball. Opposing Wicks was a fellow left-hander in Mitchell Parker, who deserved a better fate. Sure, Parker was charged with four runs in six innings, but only three were earned. He walked one and struck out eight before the bullpen completely imploded in this one. Along with scoring lots of runs, the Cubs have also been jumping on their opponents early, but that hasn't been the case in this series, as the Cubs had to play from behind in all three games. That was again the case in this one as James Wood opened the second inning with a single before advancing to third on a Juan Yepez double. Following a CJ Abrams infield single to load the bases, Washington had a golden opportunity to break the game open, only to have Wicks induce a crucial double play to kill the rally. A run did manage to score on that double play, but with that being the only run of the game for the Nationals, they are going to be kicking themselves for letting that chance go to waste. A big reason for the Cubs' offensive success the past three weeks has been the big inning, which continued in this one. The Cubs scored at least three runs on three separate occasions in this one. The first of those immediately followed the Nationals run, with Pete Crow-Armstrong leading off the third with another single. He would advance to second on a throwing error before coming around to score on the Ian Happ single to tie things up 1-1. With Dansby Swanson picking up a double ahead of a Seiya Suzuki walk, the Cubs loaded the bases only to have Isaac Paredes come through with a massive two-out hit as he put the Cubs in front for good 3-1. The Cubs would tack on another run in the fourth as Nico Hoerner led the inning off with a single before coming home to score on a bunt single from Crow-Armstrong. You read that right. Hoerner scored from first on a bunt single, and an error on that play allowed Hoerner to race around the bases and put the Cubs in front 4-1. That was the final run off Parker for the day, but with Wicks now settling in to retire 10 straight at one point before being taken out after five, the Cubs were in a great position to sweep the series if the bullpen could hold. Not only did they do that, but the offense helped as Keegan Thompson took over in the sixth to work a pair of scoreless innings while the Cubs offense was set to do damage against a laboring Nationals pen. With Parker done for the day after six, Dave Martinez turned to Jacob Barnes in hopes of keeping things close. Instead, the floodgates were about to open as the one-out Swanson set the Cubs up before he advanced to third on a Suzuki double. Swanson had a game-high four hits in this one as both of those runners came into score on a Cody Bellinger single to push the lead to 6-1, with Paredes tacking on another single to give the Cubs a 7-1 lead. Not only did Thompson work a scoreless two innings, but the newest Cub, Shawn Armstrong, tossed a scoreless eighth before Chicago put the game away in the ninth. Already with a six-run lead entering the inning, the Cubs had the pressure on again as a Happ single followed by a Suzuki double put a pair of runners in scoring position. In danger of letting this opportunity go to waste, Paredes worked a two-out walk to extend the inning and loaded the bases for the Cubs. That was the beginning of what was a seven-run inning, with all those runs scoring with two outs as a bases-loaded walk to Michael Busch made things 8-1, with Hoerner picking up an RBI single shortly after. That was the end of the road for Zach Brzykcy as Orlando Ribalta replaced him. At this point, it didn't matter who the Nationals threw out there as the Cubs were ready to hit, with Crow-Armstrong picking up another single to load the bases again, only to have Miguel Amaya deliver his only hit of the game with a double to push the Cubs lead to 12-1. Singles from Mike Tauchman and Swanson ended a seven-run ninth inning, giving the Cubs a 14-1 lead with three outs to go as Ethan Roberts took care of the rest. With the win, the Cubs push their winning streak to six games, and with back-to-back wins, they have completed the sweep of the week. Chicago pounded out 18 hits in the win, with Swanson leading the way with four. Crow-Armstrong continued his resurgence with three hits, while Happ, Suzuki, Paredes, and Hoerner all had two hits in the win. The Cubs will return to Wrigley to kick off a six-game homestand on Monday as they will welcome the Pittsburgh Pirates for the final time.
