April12th Game’s Results and Analysis

April12^th Game’s Results and Analysis

Chicago Cubs 4 – San Francisco Giants 3

Winning Pitcher: Fujikawa (1-0) Losing Pitcher: Romo (0-1)

Player of the Game: Starlin Castro

The Chicago Cubs almost let another game slip away again, but they had some clutch hits in the bottom of the ninth to win the game. The Cubs evened up their series with the Giants by having a walk-off hit. The Cubbies grabbed the lead off two solo homers by David DeJesus and Starlin Castro, both homeruns were off Giants starting pitcher Matt Cain and both were the first homers of the year for DeJesus and Castro. The Cubs had the lead the whole game until the bottom of the ninth. Closer Kyuji Fujikawa had a hard time preventing the Giants from scoring and the Giants took the lead away from the Cubs. Fujikawa give up 3 earned runs on 3 hits and hit a batter with a pitch in one inning of work. The Cubs hitters come to the rescue for Fujikawa, first pinch hitter Dioner Navarro hit a solo homer against the Giants closer Segiro Romo. After the homerun by Navarro, Luis Valbuena and Brent Lillibridge both struck out. Then David DeJesus hit a single into center field and Starlin Castro hit a walk-off double that scored DeJesus to win the game with a score of 4 to 3. Therefore, Starlin Castro is the player of the game because of his homerun and his game winning RBI double in the ninth. Castro made up for his crucial error in yesterday’s game by having a strong performance in today’s game.

Impressive: What was most impressive about today’s game was starting pitcher Carlos Villanueva’s performance on the mound. Villanueva went 7.1 scoreless innings in the game with 3 K’s and gave up three hits and one walk. Although Villanueva pitched brilliantly, he got a no decision in the game and this is the second time this year that Villanueva should have gotten a win in the game, instead of having to settle with a no decision. If you would have told me that Carlos Villanueva would pitch as well he did in his first two starts I would have said no way, but Villanueva is pitching the best for the Cubbies thus far and if he can keep it up the Cubs can have a solid year once Scott Baker and Matt Garza comeback from injuries.

Surprising: What has surprised me so far in this series against the former World Series Champs is how successful the Cubs pitchers have been against Buster Posey. The way to beat the Giants is by limiting the damage that the former National League MVP does and so far in this series the Cubbies have do that. Posey still hasn’t recorded a hit in this series and has only walked once and he has gotten on base by getting hit with a pitch. If the Cubs can handle Buster Posey like they have been lately, then the Chicago Cubs could win this series against the San Francisco Giants.

Concerning: The thing that I most concerned about with the Cubbies is closing games and winning them. The Cubs almost let another game get away from them because of struggles in the ninth inning. Fujikawa almost got the lost in today’s game instead of the win because of his poor outing. Today’s game was also Fujikawa’s first blown save and might have shown that he can be vulnerable at times and the team might have lost confidence in his ability to finish games. I believe Fujikawa will overcome this outing, but if he can’t the Cubs could struggle because they don’t have a reliable closer.