The Chicago Cubs are wearing short sleeves in Miami, Florida and are warming up.
Cole Hamels served seven strong innings, and the Cubs completed a three-game sweep of the Miami Marlins with a 6-0 win Wednesday night.
The Cubs, who won 95 games last season, entered the series with a 5-9 record and outscored the last-place Marlins 17-2 over the three games.
“When our pitchers and our lineup do the job, there is no one that can beat us,” Javier Baez who homered and knocked in two stated.
The Marlins have lost nine of 10 and are 4-16 overall. Cubs manager Joe Maddon gives the Marlins credit even though they have only ten wins under their belt in the young season.
“That’s an easy trap,” said Cubs manager Joe Maddon on discounting the wins against a struggling club. “It’s a major league game, and I really want people to understand that it’s very difficult to win a Major League Baseball game. It is. Don’t ever think that it’s something that you can just throw your glove out and there and can do.”
Ugly is getting uglier.
Marlins’ struggling center fielder Lewis Brinson, who is hitting .194 with four RBI in 19 games, was held out of the starting lineup but did strike out in a pinch-hit appearance. Brinson, a local south Floridian, is hurting in a 1-for-22 slump with 13 strikeouts.
“He’s really struggling looking at some of the stuff,” Mattingly said. “We’re doing some stuff with working on just seeing the baseball a little better and knowing exactly what to do up there and then we’ll get it going again.”
Brinson is hitting .198 with 11 home runs and 46 RBI in 128 games with the Marlins since being acquired from the Brewers as a critical piece in the Christian Yelich trade.
It is not fair, but the criticism is valid. Brinson is part of a club who is looking to making him as the centerpiece.
The future is still in the works for the club, whose pain maybe numbing.
The beat goes on.
The Cubs call up RHP Kyle Hendricks (0-3, 5.40 ERA) looks for his first win of the season when he takes the mound on Friday to begin a three-game home series against Arizona.
Marlins ring up LHP Caleb Smith (1-0, 2.65) who opens a three-game series against Washington on Friday.
