Wisdom crushes two homers in blowout win over Athletics
Neville Guard - USA Today Sports

Wisdom crushes two homers in blowout win over Athletics
by - Senior Writer - Tue Apr 18 07:39:04 GMT-04:00 2023

OAKLAND - It has been a while since the Chicago Cubs (9-6) played a game at the Oakland Colosseum, 2016 to be exact, and the last time they were there, things went great. The Cubs swept the weekend series against the Athletics and were in the middle of a season-long 11-game winning streak that year.

Granted, this is far from the same scenario, but when the Oakland Athletics (3-14) have the worst record in baseball, the thoughts of another sweep in Oakland begin to creep into fans' minds. This is also one of those series that could be a trap series, as teams tend to overlook opponents like this and then turn into terrible performances.

Knowing that, the Cubs made sure they left a statement on Monday, and the message was loud and clear as the Cubs pounded out 20 hits and destroyed the Athletics for the 10-1 win. Patrick Wisdom continued his recent power surge by hitting two more homers and now has five in four games, while Hayden Wesneski managed to pick up his first win of the season.

Speaking of Wesneski, this was the start he needed after a less-than-appealing first two outings. Granted, things were a bit shaky early on, but then Wesneski flipped the switch and looked like the pitcher the Cubs hoped he would. At one point in the game, Wesneski retired 15 consecutive batters and gave David Ross seven strong innings of one-run ball. He allowed five hits and struck out seven as he desperately needed that win.

"This is definitely a start you can build on," Wesneski said during postgame interviews. "You see the results, but it's just one of those things where the other four days, you have to figure out what you want to work on and what works for you."

On the other side was left-hander Kyle Muller, looking for his first win of the season. Muller got off to an ok start, but then the wheels came off, which is par for the course this season for Oakland. Muller got through four innings, but allowed six runs on 13 hits in what was a long night for Oakland pitching.

As mentioned, Wesneski struggled out of the gates, with Esteury Ruiz and Ryan Noda starting things off with singles to put runners on the corners with no outs in the first. Aledmys Diaz managed to give the A's the early lead with an RBI groundout, but that would be all the offense they would have as the Cubs offense got rolling in a hurry off Muller.

Sometimes it takes an offense a little while to settle in, but after Patrick Wisdom homered for the fourth straight game in the bottom of the second to tie things up, the offense began to come more naturally.

A Cody Bellinger followed that hit, who went 5-5 in the game as the Cubs started showing signs of life. Like in the first, Wesneski ran into trouble in the second, allowing two-out singles to Shea Langeliers and Connor Capel before escaping the second without any damage. Not only that, this was the beginning of a long streak without a baserunner as Wesneski went on to retire the next 15 batters he faced.

Now that Wesneski settled in and was taking care of business on the mound, it would be up to the Cubs offense to reward him on the other end. That started in the third with Seiya Suzuki driving in Nico Hoerner with an RBI single for the lead, but the offense exploded in the fourth and busted the game wide open.

Bellinger was right in the middle of all that with a one-out double and then came around to score on the Yan Gomes single. A double from Nick Madrigal put a pair of runners in scoring position before Hoerner picked up an RBI single to extend the lead to 4-1. Madrigal made a terrible baserunning play on that hit and was thrown out at home trying to score.

Following a Dansby Swanson walk, David Ross chose to get aggressive on the bases and perfectly executed the double steal to put runners at second and third. That proved beneficial as Ian Happ connected for the RBI single as the Cubs scored four runs in the fourth to jump in front 6-1. At this juncture in the game, the Cubs offense was clicking on all cylinders, and you had to like their chances for even more offense.

That appeared to be happening in the fifth when Wisdom, Bellinger, and Gomes started the inning with three straight singles and had the bases loaded with no outs. Unfortunately, the Cubs wasted a golden opportunity to cash in as Jeurys Familia induced three consecutive groundouts to keep the Cubs off the board. This was the beginning of a three-inning stretch where the Cubs offense went quiet before they began to heat up again late.

With Adrian Martinez silencing the Cubs bats through two innings, Mark Kotsay chose to bring him out for a third inning of work in the eighth. That didn't work out in his favor as the Cubs came ready to hit. Singles from Hoerner and Swanson started the inning with great baserunning from Hoerner putting runners on the corners. Happ would add to the Cubs lead with a sacrifice fly, putting Chicago in front 7-1.

With one homer in the game, Wisdom came to bat with a pair of runners on and two outs. Despite hitting seven homers up to this point, all of them have been solo shots, so the RBI numbers haven't been there. Wisdom changed that with one swing as he connected for his second homer of the night and fifth in the last four days to put the Cubs in front 10-1.

He is now tied with Pete Alonso for the major league lead and has done so with 17 fewer plate appearances.

The final two innings were about getting to Tuesday and not having anyone get hurt. However, you did have the season debut from Brandon Hughes in the eighth, who, despite allowing two straight hits to start the frame, got out damage free. His velocity was sitting around 94 MPH while his slider had the sweeping break you like to see as the Cubs took care of business 10-1.

With 20 hits, there was plenty of fun to go around, but it was Bellinger leading the way with five hits as he is now hitting .310.

"We're rolling," Bellinger said in postgame interviews. "Up and down through our lineup, there's not a weak spot. … I think we saw it in Spring Training, and now that we're all coming together every day … we're having a good time."

Wisdom and Suzuki had three-hit games, with Hoerner, Swanson, Happ, and Gomes adding two hits.

Trey Mancini was the only player without a hit as the Cubs improved to 5-2 against the AL West this season.

Comment on this story
Print   
Send Feedback to Dustin Riese: Email | Comment
Post your comments!
Read all 0 replies on the Baseball Board - Chat about this in CubsHQ Chat
search
Top Cubs News of the Week