Reverse the Curse of the Billy Goat - A MLB 14: The Show Cubs Dynasty

[NightHawkTH]

Walkoff at Wrigley: Cubs Back in the Win Column

Chicago -- The Chicago Cubs snap their 7 game losing streak by defeating the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks on a 9th inning walk off RBI single by Anthony Rizzo. The Cubs fought from behind all game, but were able to get the big hits when the counted.

The scoring got started in the 2nd inning with both team claiming a run in the frame. First, in the top half, the Diamondbacks staked an early 1-0 lead on an A.J. Pollock solo home run to left field off Cubs starter Travis Wood. The Cubs answered back in the bottom half with a Wellington Castillo solo shot to the same spot in the ball park off Arizona starter Brandon McCarthy.

The Diamondbacks would reclaim the lead in the 4th inning when Didi Gregorius hit a single up the middle with 2 men on to score Mark Trumbo and advancing Miguel Montero to 3rd on the play.

Chicago answered back again in the 7th inning with what may have been the biggest hit in the ball game. With 2 out and Ryan Sweeney on 3rd, Junior Lake singled up the middle to score Sweeney to tie the game at 2-2.

The D-Backs once again would move into the lead in the 8th inning on a monster shot to right by pinch hitter Gerardo Parra to move Arizona back out in front 3-2. But just like every other time in the game, the Cubs would answer back and tie the game at 3 after Castillo doubled home Mike Olt.

Cubs closer Jose Veras came in to the game to pitch a scoreless 9th inning, setting up the dramatics. With 1 out and the bases loaded after Starlin Castro was intentionally walked, cleanup hitter Anthony Rizzo lined a shot into center just out of the reach of the diving Pollock. Sweeney, who singled to lead off the inning, would cross the plate as the winning run.

Both starters received no decisions in the game as it turned into a bullpen kind of day for both teams. The win belongs to closer Jose Veras (2-1) and the loss went to David Hernandez (0-2). Arizona starter Brandon McCarthy left the game in the 4th inning with an apparent lower body injury as he limped off the field. He was replaced by Trevor Cahill with one gone in the 4th.

The Diamondbacks and Cubs will square off again for the 3rd game of this 4 game series on Wednesday as Wade Miley (0-1) takes on Jake Arrieta (1-2).

Wellington Castillo watches his 2nd inning Home Run


Gerardo Parra goes yard for the Diamondbacks

Spoiler

Arizona Diamondbacks at Chicago Cubs
Apr 22, 2014	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Arizona (12-11)	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	3	10	1
Chicago (8-11)	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	3	10	0
W: Jose Veras (2-1) L: David Hernandez (0-2)

Scoring Summary
SCORING DETAILS			ARI	CHC
ARI	2	Pollock homered to left	1	0
CHC	2	Castillo homered to left	1	1
ARI	4	Gregorius singled to center. Trumbo scores. Montero to 3rd. Gregorius to 2nd	2	1
CHC	7	Lake singled to center. Sweeney scores	2	2
ARI	8	Parra homered to right	3	2
CHC	8	Castillo doubled to right. Olt scores	3	3
CHC	9	Rizzo singled to center. Sweeney scores	3	4

Arizona Diamondbacks
HITTERS	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	HR	AVG
Hill, 2B	5	0	3	0	0	1	0	.310
Prado, 3B	4	0	2	0	1	0	0	.367
Campana, PR	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.344
Chavez, 3B	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.321
Goldschmidt, 1B	4	0	0	0	1	2	0	.309
Trumbo, LF	4	1	1	0	1	2	0	.291
Ross, RF	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	.333
Parra, PH-RF	2	1	1	1	0	0	1	.308
Pollock, CF	4	1	1	1	0	0	1	.300
Montero, C	3	0	0	0	1	0	0	.263
Gregorius, SS	4	0	2	1	0	1	0	.288
Hernandez, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
McCarthy, P	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Cahill, P	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Thatcher, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Pennington, SS	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.111
TEAM TOTALS	37	3	10	3	4	6	2
BATTING: 2B: M. Prado (2) HR: G. Parra (1), A. Pollock (4) RBI: G. Parra (6), A. Pollock (8), D. Gregorius (11)
FIELDING: E: M. Prado (1)

Chicago Cubs
HITTERS	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	HR	AVG
Bonifacio, CF	5	0	1	0	0	0	0	.270
Lake, LF	5	0	1	1	0	1	0	.265
Castro, SS	4	0	1	0	1	0	0	.145
Rizzo, 1B	5	0	3	1	0	0	0	.214
Olt, 3B	2	1	0	0	1	0	0	.169
Castillo, C	4	1	2	2	0	0	1	.180
Schierholtz, RF	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	.157
McDonald, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Strop, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Alcantara, PH	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.158
Veras, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Valbuena, 2B	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	.187
Wood, P	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	.000
Sweeney, RF	2	2	2	0	0	0	0	.429
TEAM TOTALS	36	4	10	4	3	1	1
BATTING: 2B: E. Bonifacio (4), R. Sweeney (5), W. Castillo (2) HR: W. Castillo (1) RBI: A. Rizzo (8), J. Lake (6), W. Castillo 2 (4) HBP: M. Olt

Arizona Diamondbacks
PITCHERS	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
B. McCarthy	3.1	4	1	1	1	0	1	2.86
T. Cahill	3.1	2	1	1	0	0	0	1.59
J. Thatcher	0.2	1	1	1	1	0	0	4.70
D. Hernandez (L, 0-2)	1.0	3	1	1	1	1	0	8.53
TEAM TOTALS	8.1	10	4	4	3	1	1

Chicago Cubs
PITCHERS	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
T. Wood	6.0	7	2	2	2	3	1	3.28
J. McDonald	1.0	2	1	1	0	2	1	1.64
P. Strop	1.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00
J. Veras (W, 2-1)	1.0	1	0	0	2	1	0	3.38
TEAM TOTALS	9.0	10	3	3	4	6	2

[NightHawkTH]

Olt Powers Cubs to Win

Chicago -- The Cubs defeated the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks 5-3 on Wednesday behind Mike Olt's 3 run home run in the 5th inning. It was Olt's first career home run as the Cubs hope to see more of that from their young 3rd baseman.

Arizona opened the scoring early in the first inning after Mark Trumbo hit a 2 run home run off Cubs starter Jake Arrieta, who struggled early in the game. The home run was Trumbo's 5th on the season.

The Cubs responded in the 3rd inning with a 2 run inning of their own to tie the game up at 2-2. Junior Lake fired the opening shot for the Cubs with a double to deep left center that scored Emilio Bonifacio easily on the gapper. After a Starlin Castro single that advanced Lake to 3rd, Anthony Rizzo singled off the glove of the diving 2nd baseman Aaron Hill to score Lake and tie the game.

The Cubs took the lead in the 5th inning on the 3 run home run from Olt. After Lake singled and Rizzo walked, Olt got a hanging breaking ball and blasted into the left field bleachers. Again, it was Olt's first career homer.

Arizona would get one back in the 6th inning when Tuffy Gosewisch singled down the left field line to score Aaron Hill on the play. The Cubs bullpen was good in this one as Kyuji Fujikawa pitched a good 1.1 innings, setting up James Russell and closer Jose Veras to shut the door.

Cubs starter Jake Arrieta took the win, advancing his record to 2-2 on the season. Wade Miley got the loss, dropping him to 0-2. Jose Veras picked up his 6th save on the season.

The Diamondbacks and Cubs will round out their 4 game series on Thursday as Bronson Arroyo (0-3, 6.64 ERA) will take on Jeff Samardzija (1-1, 1.82 ERA).

Darwin Barney was activated from the 15 day DL after the game and will join the team on Thursday, although it doesn't look like he will play for a few more days. Rookie Arismendy Alcantara was optioned to AAA Iowa.

Teammates Congratulate Mike Olt on his 1st Career Home Run


Mark Trumbo went yard for the 5th time this season

Spoiler

Arizona Diamondbacks at Chicago Cubs
Apr 23, 2014	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Arizona (12-12)	2	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	3	8	0
Chicago (9-11)	0	0	2	0	3	0	0	0	X	5	11	1
W: Jake Arrieta (2-2) L: Wade Miley (0-2) S: Jose Veras (6)

Scoring Summary
SCORING DETAILS			ARI	CHC
ARI	1	Trumbo homered to left. Parra scores	2	0
CHC	3	Lake doubled to center. Bonifacio scores	2	1
CHC	3	Rizzo reached on infield single. Lake scores. Castro to 2nd	2	2
CHC	5	Olt homered to left. Lake scores. Rizzo scores	2	5
ARI	6	Gosewisch singled to left. Hill scores. Gregorius to 2nd	3	5

Arizona Diamondbacks
HITTERS	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	HR	AVG
Campana, CF	5	0	1	0	0	0	0	.333
Parra, RF	4	1`	1	0	1	0	0	.304
Goldschmidt, 1B	5	0	0	0	0	2	0	.291
Trumbo, LF	3	1	1	2	1	0	1	.292
Hill, 2B	2	1	1	0	2	0	0	.314
Chavez, 3B	4	0	0	0	0	3	0	.298
Gregorius, SS	3	0	1	0	0	0	0	.289
Ross, PH	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.325
Pennington, SS	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.111
Gosewisch, C	3	0	1	1	0	0	0	.250
Pollock, PH	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.294
Montero, C	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.263
Miley, P	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	.125
Cahill, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Prado, PH	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	.380
Perez, P	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
TEAM TOTALS	35	3	8	3	4	5	1
BATTING: 2B: W. Miley (1), A. Hill (4) HR: M. Trumbo (5) RBI: M. Trumbo 2 (20), T. Gosewisch (1)
BASERUNNING: SB: T. Campana (5)

Chicago Cubs
HITTERS	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	HR	AVG
Bonifacio, CF	4	1	1	0	0	0	0	.269
Lake, LF	4	2	2	1	0	0	0	.278
Castro, SS	4	0	1	0	0	0	0	.150
Rizzo, 1B	3	1	1	1	1	0	0	.219
Olt, 3B	4	1	1	3	0	0	1	.175
Castillo, C	3	0	2	0	1	0	0	.208
Ruggiano, RF	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	.091
Fujikawa, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Russell, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Sweeney, PH	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.414
Veras, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Valbuena, 2B	3	0	2	0	0	1	0	.229
Arrieta, P	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	.286
Schierholtz, RF	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	.154
TEAM TOTALS	32	5	11	5	2	2	1
BATTING: 2B: J. Arrieta (1), J. Lake (5), W. Castillo (3) HR: M. Olt (1) RBI: A. Rizzo (9), J. Lake (7), M. Olt 3 (6) GIDP: J. Arrieta, R. Sweeney, J. Ruggiano
FIELDING: E: M. Olt (1)

Arizona Diamondbacks
PITCHERS	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
W. Miley (L, 0-2)	4.1	10	5	5	1	0	1	5.76
T. Cahill	0.2	0	0	0	1	0	0	1.42
O. Perez	3.0	1	0	0	0	2	0	8.80
TEAM TOTALS	8.0	11	5	5	2	2	1

Chicago Cubs
PITCHERS	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
J. Arrieta (W, 2-2)	5.2	5	3	2	3	4	1	3.04
K. Fujikawa (H, 3)	1.1	2	0	0	0	1	0	1.17
J. Russell (H, 3)	1.0	0	0	0	1	0	0	2.45
J. Veras (S, 6)	1.0	1	0	0	0	0	0	3.00
TEAM TOTALS	9.0	8	3	2	4	5	1