MLB Hoosiers (Aug. 1): Schwarber Homers in 500th Career Game With Cubs
Kyle Schwarber hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning, and gave the Chicago Cubs a little breathing room Saturday night. As it turns out, they needed it, hanging on for a 4-3 win after the bullpen collapsed in the ninth inning.
The blast over the left-field wall was Schwarber's second home run of the season. The Cubs hit three home runs total (Javy Baez and Ian Happ had the others) and moved to 6-2 on the season, the best record in the National League
Schwarber is one of four former Indiana players in the big leagues right now. His teammate with the Cubs, Josh Phegley, did not play Saturday.
This was Schwarber's 500th career game in the big leagues. Drafted with the fourth-overall pick in the 2013 MLB Draft, Schwarber made his debut on June 16, 2015 and was a postseason hero for the Cubs that season as well. He was injured at the beginning of the 2016 season, but returned for the postseason and played a huge role in the Cubs winning the World Series for the first time in 108 years.
In his 500 games, Schwarber has 112 home runs and 260 RBIs. He started in left field again, where he's been all but one game this season. Here's our Schwarber OF/DH tracker:
- Outfield (7 games): 7-for-24 (.292 average), double, 2 home run, 5 runs, 5 RBIs.
- DH (1 game): 0-for-5 (.000 average)
- Total (8 games): 7-29 (.241 average)
The Cubs have 15 home runs so far this season and passed the Detroit Tigers for the major-league lead with their three long balls on Saturday night. They’ve homered in their first eight games for the first time since 1958.
The Cubs got another great outing from starting pitcher Tyler Chatwoood. In his two starts against the Milwaukee Brewers and Pirates, Chatwood has allowed one earned run on six hits over 12⅔ innings for an 0.71 ERA. He has struck out 19 while walking only four. In the first two games of the series, Yu Darvish and Chatwood have combined for 12⅔ shutout innings.
“Obviously you want to get off to a good start,” Chatwood said. “But I felt good the second half of last year, I felt good in spring training and what I was able to continue doing during that off period. I feel like I kept getting better, and now it’s fun to put in in play against an opposing team.”
The two other Hoosiers in the bigs, Alex Dickerson and Caleb Baragar of the San Francisco Giants, both saw action on Saturday too, in the Giants' 7-3 victory over Texas.
Dickerson was 0-for-1 with a walk and run scored, and Baragar faced just one batter in the fifth inning, getting out of a jam by striking out the Rangers' Joey Gallo with two men on base. He was the winning pitcher and is now 2-0 on the season.
Saturday's Best Video
Three games were postponed again on Saturday because of COVID-19 concerns. Is the season at risk of getting cancelled before it really even gets rolling?
Saturday's Results
- Chicago White Sox 11, Kansas City 5
- Los Angeles Angels 5, Houston 4
- New York Yankees 5, Boston 2
- Atlanta 7, New York Mets 1
- Minnesota 3, Cleveland 0
- Baltimore 5, Tampa Bay 4
- Los Angeles Dodgers 11, Arizona 2
- Colorado 6, San Diego 1
- Chicago Cubs 4, Pittsburgh 3
- San Francisco 7, Texas 3
- Oakland 3, Seattle, 2
- Cincinnati at Detroit, ppd. rain
Sunday's Games
- Cincinnati at Detroit, 12:10 p.m. ET (2 games)
- Tampa Bay at Baltimore, 1:05 p.m.
- New York Mets at Atlanta, 1:10 p.m.
- Chicago White Sox at Kansas City, 2:05 p.m.
- Cleveland at Minnesota, 2:10 p.m.
- Pittsburgh at Chicago Cubs, 2:20 p.m.
- San Diego at Colorado, 3:10 p.m.
- Texas at San Francisco, 4:05 p.m.
- Los Angeles Dodgers at Arizona, 4:10 p.m.
- Oakland at Seattle, 4:10 p.m.
- Boston at New York Yankees, 7 p.m.
Related baseball stories
- HOOSIERS IN THE PROS: There are four former Indiana players on major-league rosters on Opening Day, and three others have been assigning to alternate locations, hoping for a chance to get called up. CLICK HERE
- JULY 31 ROUNDUP: Schwarber's OF hit streak ends. CLICK HERE
- JULY 30 ROUNDUP: Baragar roughed up in second outing. CLICK HERE
- JULY 29 ROUNDUP: Dickerson homers, triples for Giants. CLICK HERE
- JULY 28 ROUNDUP: Schwarber flashes leather in Cubs' win. CLICK HERE
- JULY 27 ROUNDUP: Schwarber struggles in first game as DH. CLICK HERE
- JULY 26 ROUNDUP: Schwarber continues hot streak for Cubs CLICK HERE
- JULY 25 ROUNDUP: Baragar gets first big-league win for Giants CLICK HERE
- JULY 24 ROUNDUP: Schwarber singles in first at-bat of season. CLICK HERE
- JULY 23 ROUNDUP: Dickerson has two singles for Giants. CLICK HERE