Cub of Coffee 3/31/24: Cubs 9, Rangers 5

Happy first Cubs win of the season! It was in doubt for much of the game, but they pulled it out behind five scoreless innings from the bullpen and a rally in the ninth inning.

Wicks’ impressive fastball
It won’t look like it in the box score, but I think that was one of Jordan Wicks’ more encouraging outings of his short major-league career. The results weren’t great (though the defense didn’t do him any favors) and he walked three batters. Despite that, there are some good underlying indicators.

Wicks got 19 swings and misses today, six more than his previous career high of 13 in his big-league debut. All six of Wicks’ strikeouts came on four-seam fastballs up in the zone. His previous high on four-seam whiffs was 4, and he had 11 today. Wicks was locating the fastball up in the zone effectively, and he was throwing it a tick harder, giving it an extra two inches of carry. If Wicks’ fastball can be solid, it will help his changeup play up as well. He’ll be faced with another tough lineup in his next start, so it will be interesting to see if he manages to get the same extra life on his fastball again.

Suzuki’s hard singles
The Cubs hit the ball hard all day today (they had the seven highest exit velocities in the game). Ian Happ had an outstanding day at the plate, but I was also encouraged by Seiya Suzuki’s results. He didn’t have great at-bats all day, but Suzuki’s single in the first was the third hardest hit ball of his career. If he can keep hitting the ball hard, the results will come for him.

Bullpen shutout
After struggling in the first two games of the season, the Cubs’ bullpen was able to rebound when they were needed most. Mark Leiter Jr. continued his solid work. Julian Merryweather didn’t have his dominant stuff with his velocity down 1.5 MPH, but gave the Cubs two important innings. Héctor Neris continued to look much better than he did in Spring Training, and Adbert Alzolay was able to close the game out without incident after the offense provided him with a sizable lead. It’s dangerous to rely on so many innings from the bullpen every night, but they were a key part of the Cubs’ first win of the season.

Hopefully the bad weather doesn’t spoil the home opener against the Rockies. It would be great to see Shōta Imanaga dominate the Rockies lineup.