Chicago Cubs: Top 5 wins of the 2018 regular season
Chicago Cubs 5 – Arizona Diamondbacks 1
The Cubs opened a three-game set against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday, September 17th. It was the final series in the Cubs’ ridiculous stretch of 30 days without a true day off.
The team was desperately in need of some rest, and Kyle Hendricks gave the bullpen just that.
Hendricks threw the team’s best game of the year in the desert that night. He dominated Diamondbacks’ hitters and cruised through the first eight innings.
To lead off the bottom of the ninth, Hendricks gave up a home run to A.J. Pollock before getting the next two batters to fly out and line out. After allowing a two-out single to Paul Goldschmidt, Joe Maddon pulled Hendricks.
Read. It's not time to panic about the Cubs' bullpen. light
By the end of his strong 8.2 innings, Hendricks had allowed just three hits and one walk while striking out eight. Allowing the bullpen to get just one out was huge as the team trudged through such a long stretch without an off day.
Hendricks wasn’t the only Cub who made an impact in the game.
Baez hit a 420-foot two-run home run to left-center field to increase the Cubs’ lead to 3-0 in the top of the sixth. Bryant also got in on the action. He clubbed his first homer since July 20th – his first long ball since returning from the disabled list.
It was altogether a great team win. Hendricks and Justin Wilson allowed just one run on three hits and the bats woke up, scoring five runs on nine hits.