Enhanced Box Score: Cubs 17, Nationals 3
That was a great win. A fun win. For as flat and lifeless as the Cubs seemed to come out of the gate, they REALLY turned it on in the middle and late innings, ultimately obliterating the Nationals. The Cubs put up 17(!) unanswered. I didn’t even know you could do that in a non-football game. How many times will the Bears even pull that off this season?
To be clear, the Cubs beat up on a very, very bad team tonight. That’s what you’re supposed to do if you have any kind of playoff aspirations whatsoever. So I feel good about tonight’s win, but it’s just a baseline thing. This is what the Cubs HAD TO DO to keep even the slimmest hopes alive of avoiding a sell-off.
The Cubs went down 3-0 early as Jameson Taillon, coming off his great outing against the Yankees, had a much more typical Taillon outing in this one. Just too much hard contact in the air. Too many fat pitches. He didn’t get blown up, but that probably had more to do with the opposing lineup than his own performance.
Thankfully, Taillon at least got into the 6th inning without allowing any more damage, and the bullpen held the Nationals from there.
Of course, it wouldn’t have mattered if the bullpen had allowed a bunch, since the bats EXPLODED late and poured it on. Everybody got a hit, on repeat. It’s hard to even remember Seiya Suzuki’s and Patrick Wisdom’s homers that gave the Cubs the lead initially. This game was tied 3-3 in the 6th inning!
(Ian Happ came out of the game late in favor of Mike Tauchman, who’d just pinch hit. It’s possible this was a precautionary thing because the Cubs had just built up such a big lead and Tauchman was right there available to stay in the game. I guess we’ll see soon enough.)
Full box score.
Source: bleachernation.com
