Nico Hoerner didn’t have to see the ball land within the fifth inning Monday evening at Wrigley Discipline to know Dansby Swanson had hit it over the fence. Transferring from second base, he turned and paused, selecting up the trajectory of the lengthy fly into the center of the left-field bleachers, and put each fingers within the air, realizing he had on a regular basis on the planet to jog to the plate.
The Cubs would go on to beat the Marlins 5-2, however Swanson’s fifth-inning residence run broke up a scoreless tie and opened the floodgates for the Cubs offense.
They couldn’t have gotten there, nonetheless, with out beginning pitcher Colin Rea.
“It doesn’t really feel flashy, and it doesn’t really feel overpowering,” Counsell stated. “But it surely’s good, and he is aware of what he’s doing. He’s good at his craft.”
It wouldn’t be truthful to name Rea an unlikely hero. Simply final season he steadied the Brewers rotation within the face of harm. And now he’s doing one thing related for the Cubs, after transferring from a aid position to beginning when Justin Steele went down with an elbow harm that ended up requiring season-ending surgery.
“He’s delivered some actually good perfor-mances,” Counsell stated earlier than the sport. “You recognize what to anticipate. So [we’re] actually, actually happy. And that is actually precisely the rationale we thought he was an vital piece within the offseason.”
On paper, the Cubs’ schedule is easing. They navigated a gauntlet to start the season and nonetheless managed to grab the highest spot within the Nationwide League Central. Monday’s victory places them six video games above .500.
Their subsequent seven collection are towards groups with dropping data. Over the following week and a half, they play 5 extra video games towards the Marlins and three towards the White Sox, each last-place groups of their divisions.
Whereas Rea has helped mitigate the results of dropping Steele, it’s nonetheless unclear how lengthy they’ll be with out their different high starter, Shota Imanaga (strained left hamstring) – or how they’ll fare.
These components made a efficiency like Rea’s on Monday all of the extra vital.
Rea restricted the Marlins to 2 runs in 6 ⅔ innings. It was the primary time this season that Rea – who needed to progressively construct up his workload via his first three begins – pitched into the seventh inning. It was solely the second time he’d thrown greater than 5 innings.
“Stamina-wise, I used to be good, good to go.” Rea stated. “And I didn’t really feel like I labored in any respect these final couple innings. So, it was good to get that pitch rely up. And particularly the primary recreation of the collection.”
He solely allowed one runner into scoring place via the primary six innings Monday. And the one runs he allowed had been on the 98th and remaining pitch he threw, a fastball that clipped the highest of the strike zone. Derek Hill drove it over the left-field fence for a two-run homer.
Cubs followers gave Rea a standing ovation as he walked off the mound and towards the dugout.
“I used to be undoubtedly a bit pissed off with the best way it ended,” Rea stated. “However, yeah, it feels good popping out with the lead there.”
He’d given the Cubs offense loads of time to interrupt out, which they’d lastly accomplished within the fifth.
Hoerner led off that inning with a line drive single and stolen base, earlier than Swanson’s residence run.
Miguel Amaya stored the rally rolling with a double. Then with two outs, Kyle Tucker hit a triple into the right-field nook, extending the Cubs’ result in three runs. Proper behind him, Seiya Suzuki blasted a house run to left-center area to place the Cubs up 5-0.
That was all of the offense they would want.
After Rea left the sport, right-hander Daniel Palencia and left-hander Drew Pomeranz mixed for two ⅓ scoreless innings.
