On Easter day, the Chicago Cubs won’t finish the season 0-162 as the Cubs beat the Washington Nationals 4-3 to avoid the sweep. It was the Jeff Samardzija show on the north side. Samardzija pitched 8.2 innings and would have pitched the whole game if Starlin Castro did not commit his first error of the season. After Castro committed the error in the 9th inning, 1B Adam LaRoche hit the ball over the right field wall. That made the score even closer as the Cubs led by one … 4-3. Uh oh … Cub fans were worried when Samardzija came out as Carlos Marmol entered the game. The inning began shaky for Marmol … Jason Werth walked on 5 pitches. Then it was up to Xavier Nady, but Marmol finally got the save as Nady foulout to the 3B Ian Stewart. That was the 1st save of the season for Marmol. So … Cub fans can relax and the Cubs are on the winning side of the game.
Brian LaHair returned from back problems and went 2-4 (2 1B and a K). So far I have noticed LaHair is an aggressive swinger. In Lahair’s first 3 at-bats this year, he has swung at the 1st pitch and put the ball in play (1 hit). Starlin Castro had another good game (besides that error in the 9th) as he had 2 hits (1B, 2B and had a SB as well). Castro also improved his streak of reaching base safely to 43 games and his hit streak to 14 games.
Ian Stewart would be credit with the winning hit as his rbi single put the Cubs up 4-1, until the Nationals made it 4-3. His one hit was the big play in the game.
The Cubs will begin a 4 game series with their NL Central rival Milwaukee Brewers. The game tomorrow will start at 7.05 p.m. central.