Cubs 6, Mets 5

Three up

1. Cade Horton made his well earned debut, and looked like he belonged. Aside from a belt-high hung slider to Brett Baty he had a solid night, and got a strikeout looking on his first batter. I’m looking forward to seeing more of him, and less demented fake smiles from Robothal.
2. Dansby Swanson is red-fucking-hot, showing off his future Dad Strength with yet another homer today. Going into this game, he had posted a 1.176 OPS over his last ten games, including three (now four) home runs. You love to see it.
3. Brad Keller looked sharp as the opener in this one, touching 99 on the gun and easily dispatching the extremely talented top of the Mets order to start the game. It would be tougher logistically but I’m wondering if he could be stretched out the next guy up if needed in the rotation. He’s been the best pitcher in the bullpen this year by a significant margin.

Three down

1. It felt like Miguel Amaya was having an uncharacteristically rough one behind the plate, simply catching the ball seemed rough. Maybe Horton’s stuff is just that good though. His insurance runs in the eighth atone for those whiffs behind the plate though.
2. Bullpen gonna bullpen, and Merryweather made things spicy by giving up Baty’s second homer of the game.
3. Justin Turner is apparently an awesome clubhouse guy, but the Cubs will need to pull the plug soon, or at least dramatically scale back his playing time. .161/.269/.161 is not gonna cut it.

Next up: Matt Boyd takes on asbestos collar robber baron Griffin Canning at 11:05 AM CT. It’s a Roku game, so enjoy Pat Zach and Ron I guess. Or don’t. I can’t tell you what to do. (though I still maintain that Zaidman is better than Alex Cohen. Or maybe I just have Stockholm Syndrome at this point).