Longball not needed as Chicago Cubs beat Brewers
No doubt you've heard the old baseball expression: "The only park that's not a home run in is Yellowstone."
Wrigley Field has never been mistaken for Yellowstone National Park. Popular belief has it that the wind blows out all the time and that the old North Side ballpark is a home run haven.
Cubs manager Joe Maddon sees it differently. He sees something akin to Yellowstone at Clark and Addison.
"Biggest I've ever seen," Maddon said Tuesday, before his team beat the Milwaukee Brewers 6-3 to pull within 2½ games of the Pirates for the first wild-card spot. "You watch it on TV and you see the numbers in the gaps and, 'My God, it's a bandbox.' But then you look down the lines and they're very respectable."
Wrigley Field has played as a pitchers park this year in almost every category except triples, which is odd considering the short gaps in left-center and right-center (368 feet).
The wind plays a big factor at Wrigley, and this season, it has blown in 37 times, compared with it blowing out 12. There have been eight crosswinds.
Maddon said he noticed how difficult it is to hit a ball out of Wrigley Field last year, when he came to town as manager of the Tampa Bay Rays.
"Rizzo hit a ball, and I thought it was over everything," he said, referring to Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo. "I'm not exaggerating. He hit it that well. I thought, 'Oh, my God, it's over the bleachers. I'm going to see a ball go over the bleachers.' Then I see (outfielder Ben) Zobrist go under the ball and start patting his glove, and he catches it.
"I had no idea it played that big. A lot of our guys this year have been impacted by that power wise. I know Chris Coghlan has probably hit the ball as hard as anybody all year and has been impacted in a negative way. It's the same for both sides. I'm not crying about it. I'm just saying that's true."
The Cubs (63-48) didn't need much of the longball Tuesday night in earning their fifth straight victory, what with Brewers pitchers having a tough time finding the strike zone. The Brewers' defense didn't help much, either, as the Cubs scored three times in the second inning with the help of a pair of Milwaukee errors.
Then a parade of walks started by Brewers pitcher Taylor Jungmann. He walked Coghlan leading off the third, and Rizzo scored him on a double to the gap in left-center. Jungmann issued 2 more walks in the inning before being taken out.
The Brewers came back with a run against Cubs starter Dan Haren in the fourth, but the Cubs drew 3 more walks and had a batter hit in the bottom of the inning against reliever Tyler Thornburg.
Haren lasted 5⅓ innings in getting his first victory for the Cubs. He walked Khris Davis to start the sixth and gave up a homer to Adam Lind. Haren exited in favor of Travis Wood after he struck out the next batter, Jonathan Lucroy. The Cubs got Haren in a July 31 traded with Miami.
"I've put pretty much all personal things aside," Haren said. "I've got a few weeks left here, and I really do want to do the best I can for the team. I've been so impressed in the first 10 days or so."