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Well, no, the Cubs didn’t actually win a football game this past Saturday at home versus the Pittsburgh Pirates but when you see a baseball box score of 21-0, it looks like the Bears won a game and not the Northsiders. As the sun came out on a beautiful Saturday spring day and warmed up the folks at the Friendly Confines, the Cubbies must have finally warmed up their bats by utterly destroying the visiting Pirates in this historic game.
As the dreaded early spring weather gave way to a taste of summer, April 23rd, 2022 will go down in Cubs lore as one of the biggest lopsided victories in franchise history. While literary folks celebrated William Shakespeare’s birthday, the Cubs waxed a bit poetic too in their classic beat down of an NL Central rival. After a four game losing skid, the Cubs, much like the sunshine, came out in full swing and this game was essentially over by the second inning as David Ross and Company led by nine before the second frame. The most interesting accomplishment was that Cubs only mustered one homer in this drubbing and that came from recently recalled first baseman Alfonso Rivas who welcomed back his return to the Show with a three run blast. The Cubs are tied for third in the NL with 27 doubles and they had four of them just in the fifth inning.
Nico Hoerner had a career high four hits on Saturday while the coalition of Seiya Suzuki, Willson Contreras, Ian Happ and Alfonso Rivas all had three hits apiece. Furthermore, this game saw the Pirates give up more walks (four) than strikeouts (three) as the Cubs built on a truly historic game. To put this box score into perspective, here are the following historical notes:
-This was the largest shutout in Cubs history going all the way back to 1886 when they won a game by 20 runs
-Saturdays’ game saw the Cubs score the most runs since an August 18, 1995 beat down against the Colorado Rockies when they recorded 26 home plate touches
-21-0 margin of victory was the biggest the Cubs have had since beating the Boston Braves on July 3, 1945 by a score of 24-2
–Seiya Suzuki recorded his first MLB stolen base
Starting pitcher Kyle Hendricks had little struggle in controlling the Pirate bats and recorded seven innings while only throwing 76 pitches and giving up only two hits. After breaking an early season losing skid, it will remain to be seen if this is the start of an offensive wakeup for the Cubs or just one of those games that gets away from a team as the Pirates suffered an equally historic defeat on the road. Despite the box score, one game in the Majors does not make a season and the Northside will have to wait and see how this offensive showing stirs things up in the Cubs clubhouse heading down the road.
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