For three days in Sacramento to start the week, the Cubs battered the A’s. Against a lesser team, they basically made it look easy. But coming home to great the Padres, winners of seven straight to start the season, they were significantly stepping up in class. This wasn’t the first time this year that the Cubs played a game that had a lot of the feel of a playoff game. The atmosphere was electric and the two sides battled tooth and nail.

The old cliché is that baseball is a game of inches. When we say that, we are most often talking about a ball that just reaches the bleachers (or the basket in Wrigley Field). Or we are talking about a fair/foul call where one inch on either side of the line is the difference between a win and a loss. In today’s game, we were talking about ball/strike calls in the first inning and then a play at second in the fifth inning that end up being the difference in the game.

There isn’t a lot of majestic glory to three straight walks to produce the first Cubs run. Nor was there much more to Seiya Suzuki hustling down to second on a tough grounder to short in the fifth. But those plays, along with a lot of really solid defense from the Cubs were enough to lead to a gritty victory.

The storyline was a familiar one early. Through five innings, the Padres had thrown close to 100 pitches, and they were already into their bullpen, having issued five walks and allowed three runs. Meanwhile, Shōta Imanaga was cruising along, efficiently working into the eighth inning. He walked none and only allowed a run on four hits. This looked like it was going to be another game where the Cubs saw 50 or more pitches more than their opponents.

Alas, the Padres bullpen really shut it down. On the other side, Ryan Pressly had another rough ninth inning, allowing a walk and a single before escaping with the win in tact. Pressley threw more than 30 pitches, and with the Cubs not batting, the number of pitches seen ended up basically even.

But make no mistake, it makes a difference on the first day of a series to knock their starter out in the fifth inning and have the Cubs starter throwing into the eighth. Does it guarantee another win or two in the series? Not a chance. But it does incrementally increase their chances to win each of those two games.

Let’s look at three stars of the game and then go to the numbers.

Three Stars:

1. Shōta Imanaga was the star of this one. His standout performance will have a chance to reverberate all weekend long.
2. Ian Happ had a pair of singles and scored a pair of runs. On a day where only three runs scored, that was a key performance. He also added a nice play defensively.
3. Seiya Suzuki gets my third spot in this one. It’s a mundane looking game. He had just one walk, didn’t drive in or score a run. And he didn’t play the field. I’m not sure I’ve ever done such a thing, but this game turned on Seiya’s hustle to second in the fifth. On a ground ball that was tough enough play that the scorer called it a single, Justin Turner singled to short, but if Seiya had lolly-gagged to second, this game would have almost certainly been a different game.

Game 10, April 4: Cubs 3, Padres 1 (6-4)

Reminder: Heroes and Goats are determined by WPA scores and are in no way subjective.

THREE HEROES:

• Superhero: Shōta Imanaga (.318). 7⅓ IP, 26 BF, 4 H, 0 BB, 1 ER, 4 K (W 2-0)
• Hero: Justin Turner (.144). 1-1, RBI
• Sidekick: Dansby Swanson (.085). 0-3, BB

THREE GOATS:

• Billy Goat: Pete Crow-Armstrong (-.089). 0-4
• Goat: Matt Shaw (-.054). 0-3, BB
• Kid: Miguel Amaya (-.046). 0-4

WPA Play of the Game: Justin Turner’s fifth-inning infield hit with two outs and the bases loaded. (.142)

*Padres Play of the Game: Martin Maldonado’s third inning, two-out, game-tying homer. (.121)

Cubs Player of the Game:

50 votes total Vote Now

Wednesday’s Winner: Seiya Suzuki (315 of 322 votes)

Rizzo Award Standings: (Top 5/Bottom 5)

• Shōta Imanaga +9
• Kyle Tucker +8
• Seiya Suzuki +4.5
• Jon Berti/Miguel Amaya +4
• 3 Players -3
• Justin Steele/Matt Shaw -5
• Ben Brown -6

Up Next: The Cubs will try to win their fifth straight game. Matthew Boyd (1-0, 0.00, 5 IP) will make his second start of the year for the Cubs. Nick Pivetta (1-0, 0.00, 7 IP) will make his second start of the year for the Padres. It doesn’t get any easier.