Hello, the Cubs * can * win a fake baseball game. Tonight, they resisted the Twins 4-3 to wrap up their short exhibition season. All four races came early on home runs by Anthony Rizzo, Willson Contreras and Willson Contreras. Cousin? Ian Happ was called up to replace Kris Bryant at the starting point and came to base three times he went to the plate (one hit and two walks).
Jon Lester had a warm-up start, and it sure looked great in 4.1 innings:
Jon Lester gave up a hit on 4.1 IP tonight. pic.twitter.com/mA7hHmml0K
– Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) July 23, 2020
For the most part, you just want to see Lester healthy and increasing his length, and now it looks like five inputs will be possible from the start if he’s efficient enough. That is huge. I can’t wait to see what it has this year.
For what it’s worth, this is attractive:
Jon Lester released 10 changes tonight according to @statcast. 15.2% of their total releases. He released the switch 11.7% of the time last year. The pitch averaged 81.9 mph, 3 miles below his running average.
Results: SwStr, SwStr, SwStr, Out, Foul, Foul, SwStr, Foul, Ball, SwStr. Wow.
– Cubs Outlook – Bryan Smith (@cubprospects) July 23, 2020
Duane Underwood, Jr., impressed again tonight, with a fastball shot, his usual excellent trade, and the curved ball looked extremely sharp and neat. It really could be something this year:
Underwood hits Jake Cave and Marwin González and finishes an eighth eighth 1-2-3 with a flyout at bat for Max Kepler. Those on the right had an impressive camp.
Against twins, he beat 97 mph. He blinked a knuckle curve for a knock knock. And here is a look at a change for K. pic.twitter.com/BLGQMo1o3y
– Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) July 23, 2020
Big left-hander Brad Wieck clinched save with a pair of strikeouts in a ninth scoreless. He was sitting at 91 mph with his fastball (and I saw about 90) after going 93-94 mph last year. I’m not sure what’s wrong with that. I kept getting results.
More information about the game soon, and more ABOUT THE SEASON SOON BECAUSE IT WILL COME IN TWO DAYS.
