CHICAGO – Chicago lived up to its motto on Sunday night when the New York Yankees took on the Chicago Cubs in a cold, windy matchup. The game lasted over six hours as the Yankees finally downed the Cubs in the 18th inning by a score of 5-4.
Cubs’ starter Jon Lester was locked in a pitcher’s duel with Luis Severino right from the beginning of the game. Lester allowed an early first inning run but settled down nicely after that. The southpaw pitched seven innings of three hit ball and struck out nine, while only allowing one earned run.
Severino was just as dominant for the Yankees as his only mistake came on a Javier Baez HR in the third inning. The young righty also hurled seven innings of one run ball while striking out nine.
Luis Severino looking pretty sharp through 5 tonight… Topping out at 100.2 MPH. Average four seamer 98.1 MPH. pic.twitter.com/f4RJpOS2ep
— Daren Willman (@darenw) May 8, 2017
Sloppy play is what ultimately led to the demise of the Cubs in this marathon of a game. In the top of the seventh inning, an error by Kris Bryant allowed Starlin Castro to reach second and Aaron Judge made him pay with a triple to bring home the Yankees second baseman.
With the Yankees up 2-1 heading into the 8th inning, Jacoby Ellsbury provided some insurance for the bullpen with a two-run HR off of Justin Grimm.
Dellin Betances and Aroldis Chapman have been a flawless 1-2 combo for the Yankees in the 8th and 9th inning all season long. On Sunday, that changed. Betances worked his way out of trouble in the 8th but Chapman blew the three run lead in his worst outing of the season. Chapman allowed three hits, three earned runs, two walks and plunked Anthony Rizzo with the bases loaded to knot the game a 4-4.
With the bases loaded, the Cubs had a legitimate chance to win the game but Tyler Clippard got the Yankees out of a huge jam to force extra innings at Wrigley.
Nine innings later, the game remained tied at 4-4 when Starlin Castro finally broke the tie on a ground ball to Addison Russell that was poorly thrown, allowing Aaron Hicks to score from third.
Chasen Shreve closed out the game for the Yankees and pitched three quality innings in a winning effort. The lefty struck out five and allowed only one hit in relief.
The Yankees improved to 20-9, which is good for the best record in baseball, in the Sunday night classic and will take on the Cincinnati Reds on Monday night to try and improve their win streak to six. Masahiro Tanaka left Chicago early so that he could rest up in advance of the game on Monday and he will take on Rookie Davis.
Win- Chasen Shreve
Loss- Pedro Strop
Notes:
The Yankees and Cubs combined for a record 48 strikeouts in the epic battle, Sunday night. Kyle Schwarber made Jeter-esque catch diving into the stands in extra innings but the Yankees were able to battle for a hard fought victory and series sweep.
