Round 2 - Cubs(2) sweep Fish(10) in 3

Game 1 at Chicago

Chicago 7 Miami 2

WP: Jon Lester

LP: Jose Fernandez

The Chicago bats were alive up and down their fine lineup as they rode their 13 hits to an easy 7-2 victory in the series opener in the Friendly Confines.  Anthony Rizzo and Jon Lester were the only 2 Chicago starters without hits.  Dexter Fowler and Kyle Schwarber enjoyed big days, as the two players combined for 7 hits in 10 AB with 2 HR.  Jon Lester was excellent, yielding only 2 hits in 7.2 innings to earn the victory.  Martin Prado had two of the Marlins three hits in the game including a HR.

Game 2 at Chicago

Chicago 8 Miami 3

WP: Jake Arrieta

LP: Dan Haren

The Cubs used the long ball (4) to dispatch the Marlins again at Wrigley.  The Marlins held a 2 run lead going into the 3^rd inning when Kris Bryant hit a 2R HR to tie it up.  From there, the Cubs just kept hitting HRs.  Anthony Rizzo hit 2 HRs and Kyle Schwarber added his second on the series.  Although he gave up some hits, Jake Arrieta got key strikeouts (6) to prevent a lot of damage.  7 of Chicago’s 9 hits were extra base hits.  In order for the Marlins to have a chance in this series, they’ll have to slow down that Cub offense which is hitting .328/.423/.671 through the first 2 games.

Game 3 at Miami

Chicago 4 Miami 2

WP: Jason Hammel

LP: Adam Conley

SV: Hector Rondon

This was the only tight game of the series.  As they had in each of the previous 2 games, the Marlins scored a run in the first inning.  The Cubs took the lead for good in the 3^rd inning stringing together 3 singles after Dexter Fowler was HBP.  Miami’s best chance to tie up the game came in the 4^th inning when they had runners at the corners with no outs.  Hammel got a big strike out and a weak dribbler back to the mound to keep the Marlins off the board in that inning.  The Marlins got a big break when Kyle Schwarber was not in the starting lineup.  The move made it possible for the Marlins to limit Schwaber to a single HR on this day, when he PH in the 7^th inning and took Sam Dyson deep.  Hector Rondon came into the game in the 9^th inning to pick up the save.

Series Stars (the 3 that you’d want to stop at the start of a series):

Chicago

Kyle Schwarber – .636 BA, 3HR

Kris Bryant – .400 BA

Anthony Rizzo – 2 HR, 5 RBI

Miami:

Martin Prado – .417 BA, 3 HR
--submitted by Stephen Roman--