Cubs ride hot bats to series victory over Marlins

Anthony Rizzo and Jason Heyward led the way offensively, while game three showed a Kyle Schwarber awakening

Jonathan Daniel of Getty Images

The Chicago Cubs came into Monday night on a high after sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals at home. They were able to carry that momentum into this three game set against the Miami Marlins as they took two out of three games against the fish. Although it is nice that the Cubs won the series, the more important story is the offense showing some life.

The Cubs scored 18 runs in these three games, which is a huge sign of improvement after they only managed nine runs in the six game road trip to Los Angeles and San Diego. Now, the Cubs are six games into this current 10-game homestand and they have managed a 5–1 record in those games. Here is how the series with Miami played out:

Game 1: Chicago Cubs 3 Miami Marlins 1

The first game of this three game series saw the Cubs jump out to an early 2–0 lead in the first inning thanks to Kris Bryant’s two-run home run, his 13th of the season. Albert Almora Jr. provided a solo shot in the fourth inning to give the Cubs a 3–0 lead.

That was the only offense Chicago needed as Cubs starter Eddie Butler was able to keep the Marlins offense in check. Butler allowed one earned run and only three hits in 5.2 innings of work. The only run he gave up came in the sixth inning when Marlins second baseman Dee Gordon hit a sacrifice fly that scored JT Riddle.

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From there, Butler turned it over to Mike Montgomery and he closed the deal all by himself. Montgomery gave the Cubs 3.1 innings of relief with only 3 hits allowed and no runs with 3 k’s. Miami’s biggest threat came in the eighth inning when they were down 3–1 with a runner on second and two outs. Giancarlo Stanton was the batter and Montgomery found himself down in the count 3–1. Two straight off-speed pitches in the dirt forced Stanton to chase as Montgomery got him swinging to end the inning. A 1–2–3 ninth inning wrapped up the Cubs fourth straight victory.

Game 2: Chicago Cubs 10 Miami Marlins 2

I think most Cubs fans would agree that Tuesday night’s 10–2 win was one of the most fun games to watch all season. Before the late game explosion happened, the Cubs were unable to score in the first four innings. Luckily for them, the dominant Jake Arrieta showed up and kept the game within reach.

Miami jumped out to a 1–0 lead in the 1st inning on a J.T. Realmuto groundball that forced a fielder’s choice allowing Giancarlo Stanton to score from third base. That was the only run Arrieta gave up before the Cubs took control. He gave up one other run later on in the game and his final stat line looked like this: 6 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 3BB, 5K’s, and 100 pitches.

via mlb.com

Chicago did all of it’s damage in just two innings, the first of which was the 5th. Miami was still ahead 1–0 and even had two outs with the bases empty. After Jon Jay and Kris Bryant both got on, Anthony Rizzo deposited his 13th home run on the season into the right field bleachers (and set the bullpen in a frenzy).

Willson Contreras followed that by reaching on an error and then got knocked in thanks to the double off the red hot bat of Jason Heyward. It was one of three hits on the evening for Heyward and it capped off a four run inning giving the Cubs a 4–1 lead heading into the 6th inning.

Miami was only able to add one more run in the top of the 7th on a hard hit ball by J.T. Riddle up the middle that was ruled an error on Addison Russell (Realmuto scored).

The bottom of the 7th is when the Cubs took this from a tightly contested game and just completely ran away from the Marlins. It started off with Rizzo adding his fourth RBI on the night as he drove in Bryant on a single making it 5–2. Heyward then brought Rizzo home on a RBI double, his second of the game. Javy Baez drove in two runs on his double to left field, making the score 8–2. They weren’t done. Jon Jay provided the final RBI hit as he knocked in Baez and Ian Happ completing the six run inning and making it 10–2.

A couple of anti-climactic relief innings from Justin Grimm and Hector Rondon brought the Cubs home with a 10–2 win. This marked as the Cubs 5th straight win to start the homestand and two in a row to start the series against Miami. Chicago improved its record to 30–27. The Milwaukee Brewers also won over the San Francisco Giants on this night so the Cubs remained tied with the Brew-Crew for first place in the NL Central.

Game 3: Miami Marlins 6 Chicago Cubs 5

The Cubs lost the final game of this three game series against the Marlins by a score of 6–5. Chicago trailed for much of the game but made a late rally that nearly sparked a second straight comeback victory.

Miami struck first when Christian Yelich hit a sacrifice fly to left field which scored Dee Gordon in the 1st inning. That 1–0 score lasted only until the bottom of the 3rd when Anthony Rizzo added a two-RBI double that scored Kyle Schwarber and Ian Happ. Rizzo is now up to 36 RBI’s on the season (team high) and had six in the last two games of this series.

Cubs starting pitcher John Lackey wasn’t able to hang on to this lead and Miami regained control in the top of the 4th. J.T. Realmuto hit a solo home run to tie the game. Later in the inning, JT Riddle added a two-RBI single that scored Derek Dietrich and Tyler Moore giving the Marlins a 4–2 lead. In the top of the 5th, Marcell Ozuna added a solo home run off Lackey to extend the lead to 5–2. Lackey ended up making it through six innings of work and his line looked like this: 6 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 6 K’s, 94 pitches.

Happ cut the lead to 5–3 with a home run in the bottom of the 5th inning. Marlins starting pitcher Jose Urena was able to make it through the inning and his line looked like: 5 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 5 K’s, 87 pitches.

Miami added an insurance run in the 7th inning which proved to be the winning run. Cubs relief pitcher Brian Duensing struck out Giancarlo Stanton and the ball bounced away from catcher Miguel Montero. After throwing out Stanton at first base, Dee Gordon was aggressive rounding third base for the Marlins. He took off for home and beat the return throw from Rizzo extending the Marlins lead to 6–3.

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Enter Kyle Schwarber. Schwarber, who finished the night with three hits, hit a solo home run to left-center field in the bottom of the 7th cutting the Miami lead to 6–4. The next inning, Schwarber added an RBI double that scored Jon Jay, making it 6–5. Unfortunately for the Cubs, Marlins closer A.J. Ramos was able to preserve the Miami lead and the fish took the final game of this series.

The loss drops the Cubs record to 30–28 and one game behind the Milwaukee Brewers for first place in the NL Central. Up next is a four game home series against the Colorado Rockies starting Thursday night at 7:05 CT. Starting pitchers for this game are Tyler Chatwood for the Rockies and Jon Lester for the Cubs.

Nick Konotopskyj is a recent graduate of St. Bonaventure University in Western New York. As a fan of the Cubs, Bills, Sabres and Knicks winning seasons have been hard to come by let alone title contending teams. Finally, the Cubs were able to lift the curse last fall. You can follow him on Twitter here.