Cubs win 7th in a row behind Hamels' gem |
It was hyped as a pitching duel and it was as advertised as Cole Hamels and Jacob deGrom both pitched masterfully on Tuesday night.
Hamels went five scoreless innings and threw 93 pitches as he is 4-1 with a 1.45 ERA in nine career starts at Wrigley Field. "To put up zeros are great, but first and foremost, we want to go deep in the ballgame," Hamels said. "It's a little hard to do when you walk a couple guys, unfortunately, the same guy multiple times. Every time [Austin Jackson] came up, there were guys in scoring position and you have to be careful." Hamels has a 0.69 ERA in his first six starts for the Cubs which is the third lowest ERA in a player's six starts with a team in the live-ball era (1920) according to ESPN Stats & Info. deGrom went eights innings striking out 10 batters, giving up only one run and had his own RBI single in the seventh inning. The game was suspended in the 10th inning tied at 1-1 because of heavy rain in the area and resumed on Wednesday at noon CT. After a delay of 13 hours and 59 minutes, the game resumed with Cubs reliever Steve Chishek taking the mound in front of a sparse crowd. The offensive spark for the Cubs was Anthony Rizzo with his four singles out of five at-bats during the contest. He is batting .516 over his last eight games with four homers and five doubles. The crucial play of the game was in the 11th inning as catcher Victor Caratini laid down a bunt to move Javy Baez to second base after El Mago drew a rare walk. The Mets catcher overthrew the first baseman and then Baez and Caratini were in scoring position with no outs. Kyle Schwarber was intentionally walked to load the bases. Almora struck out looking to setup up the heroics by veteran Ben Zobrist on a walk-off single. It was the Cubs seventh win in a row and their seventh walk-off win this season. Personally, it was Zobrist's sixth walk-off RBI of his career. The Cubs go for the sweep of the Mets at 1:20 pm start for game two today as they are now up 4.5 games over second place St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Central division. Zo knows clutch. #Walkoff #EverybodyIn pic.twitter.com/xkPblPCvZF On the Diamond: @Kelly_Crull catches up with @benzobrist18 after a walk-off single in the #Cubs win over the #Mets, presented by @JandSJewelers pic.twitter.com/dYeGhTCZUY 7th #walkoff of the year for our 7th straight win! #EverybodyIn pic.twitter.com/iNouuwJQm6
