In Cubs' opener, Lester shaky, but big bats, bullpen step up for win
MIAMI - While Opening Day was a bit raggedy around the edges for the Cubs, the bookends kept things tidy enough Thursday during an 8-4 victory over the Miami Marlins at Marlins Park.
Ian Happ made the decision to bat him leadoff seem genius as he hit the first pitch of the major-league season out of the park to right field.
The bullpen finished things with 5⅔ innings of 1-hit shutout ball in relief of Jon Lester, who did not have his best stuff.
Throw in some adventuresome play in left field by Kyle Schwarber and an emotional home run for Anthony Rizzo, and Game 1 of 162 will give fans plenty to chew on until Game 2.
"I thought we swung the bats well the whole game," said Cubs manager Joe Maddon. "Obviously a leadoff home run doesn't hurt, very first pitch of the game. But up and down the lineup, good quality at-bats. Jonny Lester was not on top of his game, that was obvious. But how about the bullpen? (Steve) Cishek got the game right, and everybody that followed pitched extremely well, too.
"We had a couple errors, but I thought the defense played well, also."
The Marlins may be one of baseball's worst teams, and the first inning was a good indication of that. Starting pitcher Jose Urena was fidgety from the start, and Happ greeted him with a loud homer before echoes from the pregame military flyover died down.
Happ became the first player to hit a homer on the first pitch of the MLB season since Boston's Dwight Evans in 1986.
Last year's Cubs leadoff man, Schwarber, wasn't surprised.
"That was exciting," he said. "I don't think anyone in the dugout thought a single was coming. I think we all knew something special was going to happen right there. To be able to lead off the baseball season on the first pitch with a homer is pretty special."
Happ played it low-key.
"I saw the ball really well, and I happened to put a good swing on it," he said.
The Cubs scored twice more that inning as Urena walked two batters and hit three others. For his part, Lester just couldn't find a rhythm, as he lasted 3⅓ innings, giving up 7 hits and 4 runs (3 earned) while walking three.
"I'm not going to sit here and make excuses for anything," he said. "I didn't throw the ball very well at all today. There's really no excuse for it. I just wasn't able to execute when I needed to."
The Marlins got 3 in the third. Schwarber had trouble at the wall on a triple by Derek Dietrich. He later committed an error on Brian Anderson's single, turning it into three bases. As usual, Schwarber was undaunted.
"Obviously it was frustrating, but you've just got to be able to move on from it and learn," he said. "I'm not mad about it. I'm not letting that be an indicative point on how I play the outfield. I felt like I moved on from it pretty great."
The bullpen of Cishek (1-0), Brian Duensing, Pedro Strop, Justin Wilson and Mike Montgomery saved the day for Lester.
One of the nicer moments of the game came in the second, when Rizzo hit a solo homer with two outs. Rizzo and the Cubs paid tribute before the game by wearing T-shirts of Rizzo's alma mater, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people died in a shooting on Feb. 14. There were many Cubs fans in the crowd of 32,151, but almost everybody in attendance saluted Rizzo.
"I've hit a lot of home runs - that was probably the most out-of-body experience I've had hitting a home run, probably in my life," he said. "It just felt really good. Obviously my emotions on Opening Day usually are pretty high, but with all this, you can't really put it into words."
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