There should be absolutely no surprise — or debate — on the Ankin Law “Making it Personal” Player of the Game tonight. That honor goes directly and unanimously to the team’s newest starting pitcher, Kevin Gausman, who threw 7.0 strong innings against the Royals in his Cubs debut.
Across the night, Gausman allowed just 2 ER, 4H, and a walk against 4Ks. And even that is probably underselling his performance, as the first run came across to score after Gausman took a 106.2 mph comebacker off his leg. Hell, even the later (solo) homer from Carter Jensen took a rare miss — Gausman had been dotting the corners with some of his prettiest pitches before leaving that four-seamer up.
Bottom line, he was as good as anyone could’ve reasonably hoped. He was also probably a little amped up, as his splitter was up 1.8 mph and his four-seamer was up 1.0 mph compared to his season average. Pretty typical for a pitcher’s first start with a new team, even a veteran like Gausman. And that splitter … my GOD was it good. The Royals just could not lay off and wound up whiffing 10 times on that pitch alone.
Maybe the best part about Gausman’s night was the efficiency (7 IP on 96 pitches). He faced the minimum in the second, fourth, sixth, and seventh innings, keeping the bullpen out of the game until the eighth.
Unfortunately, that’s when the game went from comfortable and breezy to a little tense. Caleb Thielbar entered the game and immediately gave up a bloop double (not entirely his fault, as Ian Happ went for the diving catch, but still…). After that, a couple of runs came around to score, the second withwa Trent Thornton on the mound (but charged to Thielbar).
I get that the Cubs have played 15 games in a row and don’t have a day off until Monday. And I get that, at the time Thielbar was called in, the Cubs had a four-run lead. And I get that you can’t use your best relievers every night … but Thielbar has been used three nights in a row, Thornton two, and both have been walking the tightrope (at best) pretty much all season.
Thornton did get out of it without further damage, and clearly there are some unavailable arms out there in the ‘pen. But that got way too close for comfort.
Let’s just say I was a lot more excited about Pedro Ramirez’s top-of-the-eighth homer a half-inning after he hit it than I was at the time it went out. Also, Ramirez is so good: .300/.355/.445 (120 wRC+) with a 17.2% strikeout rate after tonight. He is 22 years old. And a switch hitter. And positionally versatile.
Also good? Our interim closer, Jacob Webb. He had a drama-free ninth inning, sending us to bed happy. Great game, great win. That’s five in a row for the Cubs, who pick up a game tonight on the Brewers following Milwaukee’s loss to the Twins.
Full Box Score.
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