April 11th Game’s Results and Analysis

April 11^th Game’s Results and Analysis

San Francisco Giants 7 - Chicago Cubs 6

Winning Pitcher: Vogelsong (1-1) Losing Pitcher: Feldman (0-2)

Save by Romo (6)

Player of the Game: Pablo Sandoval

The Chicago Cubs let one slip by them in today’s game. The Cubs probably should have won the game today, but they let their 5 run lead slip away by giving the Giants four runs in the top of the 4^th inning and three runs in the 5^th inning. The Cubs did score a run in the 8^th to make it a one run ball game, but couldn’t capitalize in the 9^th when David DeJesus hit a double with one out. The Cubs needed to win this game because they will have some tough matchups in their next few games. The player of the game was Pablo Sandoval who hit a big two RBI double in the 4^th inning that give the Giants confidence to comeback in the game and draw a walk following Sandoval’s double.

Impressive: The most impressive thing in today’s game for the Cubbies was how well they hit and scored off a good pitcher. The Cubs had a total of 12 hits and five of those hits were extra base hits. Anthony Rizzo hit his third homerun this season and each of these homeruns were two run homers with Starlin Castro on base. The Cubs hitters did well, but not great with runners in scoring position by going 4 for 14 when those occasions occurred. Although the Cubbies did do well against off the Giants pitching, they did miss some chances to tie the game when Starlin Castro got stuck at third with one out and when the Cubbies left David DeJesus on second base in the ninth inning.

Surprising: The most surprising thing about today’s game was reliever Hisanori Takahashi walking the Giants pitcher Ryan Vogelsong when the bases were loaded in the 5^th inning to tie the game. I was shocked when Takahashi walked him because a pitcher should never ever walk a pitcher especially when the bases are loaded. I would rather get beat by the pitcher hitting the baseball instead of walking him. There was one out in the inning as well therefore if he could have gotten Vogelsong out he might have prevented the three runs that the Giants scored on him and the Cubbies could have won today’s game.

Concerning: The thing that I’m most concerned about with the Chicago Cubs is their starting pitchers not being able to prevent the big inning. The Cubs have allowed too many innings where they give up more than 3 runs and if these innings were prevented then the Cubs would have won the majority of their games so far. I know that Feldman wasn’t charged for the runs in the 4^th inning because there was a crucial error made by Starlin Castro with two outs that allowed one run, but Castro didn’t hit Brandon Crawford with a pitch and give up a double to Pablo Sandoval. I’m just concerned that the Cubs just give up too many big innings and that will hurt the Cubbies more than it can benefit them. Another concern of mine is Scott Feldman as a starting pitcher. I know that he wasn’t to blame for today’s loss, but I strongly believe that Feldman doesn’t have an out pitch and every starting pitcher needs a pitch that he can get outs with. You can argue that Feldman’s out pitch is his sinker, but so far this season he doesn’t have control of that pitch. Until Feldman can command his sinker better he won’t be putting together too many good performances on the mound.