I kid because I love and did you know that Eric Hosmer is hitting .400 in his last five at-bats? Trade value sky rocketing right now. Give Jed Hoyer a call, folks!
So, the Cubs had a six-game road trip out to California and they took care of business against the Los Angeles Dodgers, winning two of three in LA and then they swept the lowly Oakland A’s.
Wednesday’s series finale wasn’t the cleanest game for the Cubs, but they were able to overcome a few of their mistakes to win 12-2. The A’s entered the game with the worst pitching staff in baseball, but right-handed starting pitcher Mason Miller made his MLB debut for Oakland and the 24-year-old was pretty close to living up to the hype.
Despite making a total of 10 minor league starts and one relief appearance since getting drafted in the third round back in 2021, Miller’s name was on everyone’s radar after he pitched five perfect innings and struck out 11 batters in his last start at Triple-A.
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Miller was regularly hitting triple digits with his fastball against the Cubs, but his stuff started to diminish in the fifth inning. The righty was approaching 80 pitches after throwing a career high 64 in his previous start at Triple-A. Eric Hosmer reached on what was a very generous hit call to third base and then Nick Madrigal singled to right center that pushed Hosmer to third. Cubs catcher Tucker Barnhart hit a sac-fly to center that gave the Cubs a 2-1 lead and chased Miller out of the game.
It was a good debut for Miller, who struck out five, walked one and gave up two runs on four hits.
Ian Happ saw Miller the best, hitting two line drives off the rookie. The first hard-hit from Happ was unfortunately a line out double play in the first inning, but then he drove in the first run of the game with an RBI-double in the fourth inning.
After the A’s tied the game at two in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Cubs put up a four-spot in the sixth inning, once again feasting off Oakland’s poor bullpen.
Cody Bellinger did a great job to hang in there against a lefty and he drove in the first run in the sixth with a ground ball. Then, Patrick Wisdom delivered a two-run triple, hammering a ball off the right-field wall. He scored a few minutes later on a wild pitch to make it 6-2.
Wisdom barely missed hitting his ninth home run of the season.
It was pretty much over there, but the Cubs added six more runs, as Hosmer crushed his first home run of the season in the eighth inning while Luis Torrens and Nick Madrigal each drove in two runs in the ninth.
Bellinger ended up scoring on a throwing error, so Torrens was only credited with two RBI on his double to right-center with the bases loaded.
Yes, the A’s are not a good baseball team, but you have to play the teams that are on your schedule and the Cubs took care of business in Oakland, outscoring the A’s 26-3 in the three-game sweep.
Elite Starting Rotation
After Marcus Stroman pitched six shutout innings on Tuesday night, lefty Justin Steele pitched six innings and only allowed one earned run on Wednesday. Both Stroman and Steele have recorded four consecutive quality starts to begin the 2023 season, leading the way to what has been the best starting rotation in the National League by ERA.
As a group, the Cubs rotation has been the third-best in all of baseball and they’re not doing it with luck either, holding opponents to a lot of weak contact through the first three weeks of the regular season.
The Cubs now head back to Wrigley Field to begin a seven-game home stand, with four games against the Dodgers starting Thursday and then a three-game series against the San Diego Padres.
The Cubs are now 11-6, winning 10 of their last 13 games.
