Some 241 pitches were thrown in last night’s Game 2 of the National League Championship Series.
Only one mattered.
Only one out of 241 was anything anyone could do something with. In the top of the second inning, Cubs’ ace Kyle Hendricks, the NL ERA champ, put one lousy pitch in Adrian Gonzalez’s wheelhouse, and it ended up in the centerfield bleachers.
That was the sum total of the offense.
The Dodgers got two more hits the rest of the game. The Cubs mustered just two hits the entire game.
It was a classic pitching duel between two of the best pitchers in the NL, rivialing a Gibson-Koufax matchup or a Jenkins-Marichal gem.
In the end, Kershaw was slightly more brilliant than Hendricks and the Dodgers won the game 1-0 and tied the series 1-1 as they had back to three in Los Angeles starting Tuesday.
The Cubs are hoping they can find some offense. The team that won 103 games during the regular year is hitting an anemic .193 in the post season. Anthony Rizzo is 1-for 23, good for a bad .043. Addison Russell is “hitting” .045 (1-for-22). Jason Heyward is at .111. Dexter Fowler is .167. Ben Zobrist is .182.
Eventually these guys are going to have to find one pitch they can do something with other than pop up weakly to second.
Either that or it’s going to be Year 108 without a championship. And counting.
*****
TODAY’S GAME:
Trevor Bauer (12-8, 4.26) vs. Marcus Stroman (9-10, 4.37)
Game time: 7:08, TBS
How the Indians hit against Stroman.
How the Blue Jays hit against Bauer.