2026 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Matt Shaw is the Superhero vs. the Rockies

Even when this team actually wins and wins a series, it ends up being vaguely disappointing. The Cubs won Wednesday night to salvage a split in the season series and a win in the Wrigley portion of the series. The Cubs outscored the Rockies in Denver 14-13, but only managed one win. The Rockies and Cubs tied 15-15 over the three games in Chicago. So in sum, the Cubs outscored the Rockies 29-28 while winning three of six. Not good enough. What a lost opportunity. The kind of thing you look back on after you just miss the playoffs.

On the one hand it was good to see the offense get in gear. But this game does nothing to assuage my concerns about them. They piled on, scoring seven runs in the second inning. I’ve made the statement that it feels like they pounce on a struggling pitcher when that happens and otherwise struggle to sustain any offense at all. In this one, they got seven runs in one inning and just one run in the other seven.

I suspect Pete Crow-Armstrong will hit hundreds of homers in his career, assuming relative health and longevity for a player of his skill level. To be fair, that may not be a fair assumption for a guy who plays the game as hard and fast as he does. But bear with the premise. If he goes on to hit hundreds of homers, he might never register a weirder one than the one he did in this game. Without digging, I’m pretty sure he’s already gotten a shorter one and probably will again (he has at least one inside-the-park homer). But the one he hit in this game, I saw a ton of replays of it and I’m still not sure it went out. It sure didn’t look like it at full speed. When slowed down, it kind of looked like maybe it did.

That was essentially the only offense after the first inning. Not good enough. That’s where I just keep coming back. Javier Assad pitched relatively well. But the Cub bullpen threw 3.1 innings, allowing four hits, two walks and four runs. Not good enough. It just keeps ending up there. But the bullpen was credited with a hold and a save. Those are pretty rare occurrences for this team. Somehow, so are series wins.

Generally not good enough. But on this night, it was enough. Just barely. But it beats the alternative.

Three Positives:

• Matt Shaw had a two-run triple and added a single. Shaw’s injury hurt this team more than most people acknowledged.

• Seiya Suzuki had a single, a double and drew a walk. He drove in a run and scored one.

• Javier Assad allowed two runs over 5.2 innings. Some forget that he had 29 starts in 2024 with a 3.73 ERA (though 4.64 FIP). He’s a reasonable back half of the rotation guy.

Game 75, June 17: Cubs 8, Rockies 6 (39-36)

Reminder: Heroes and Goats are determined by WPA scores and are in no way subjective.

THREE HEROES:

• Superhero: Matt Shaw (.168). 2-4, 3B, 2 RBI, R

• Hero: Javier Assad (.115). 5.2 IP, 22 BF, 5 H, 0 BB, 2 ER, K (W 5-1)

• Sidekick: Dansby Swanson (.062). 1-4, HR, 2 RBI, R, SB

THREE GOATS:

• Billy Goat: Ethan Roberts (-.037). 0.1 IP, 4 BF, 2 H, BB, 3 ER

• Goat: Pete Crow-Armstrong (-.022). 1-5, HR, RBI, R

• Kid: Nico Hoerner (-.020). 1-5, R

WPA Play of the Game: Matt Shaw’s two-run triple with no outs in the second drove in the first two runs of the game. (.175)

Rockies Play of the Game: Cole Carrigg drew a one out walk in the eighth inning with the Rockies down three. (.025) Hunter Goodman’s two-run homer with one out in the eighth to cut it to three had the same WPA.

Cubs Player of the Game:

Game 73 Winner: Miguel Amaya nudged Pete Crow-Armstrong 66-47 (132 votes total)

Rizzo Award Standings: (Top 5/Bottom 5)

The award is named for Anthony Rizzo, who finished first in this category three of the first four years it was in existence and four times overall. He also recorded the highest season total ever at +65.5. The point scale is three points for a Superhero down to negative three points for a Billy Goat.

• Michael Busch +25

• Pete Crow-Armstrong +13

• Ben Brown +12.5

• Michael Conforto +10

• Trent Thornton +8.5

• Edward Cabrera -9.5

• Phil Maton -10

• Caleb Thielbar/Dansby Swanson -11

• Seiya Suzuki -21.5

Up Next: An off day Thursday, then the defending AL champion Blue Jays come to town. The Jays won Wednesday to get to 36-38 but have a game Thursday afternoon in Boston before coming to Chicago. Neither team had announced starters. Friday should be Ben Brown’s spot (3-2, 1.74, 62 IP). Ben is the anti-2026 Cub starter. He’s allowed just one homer and is the only thing keeping the Cub homer numbers from being truly grotesque.

Win a game behind Ben and keep the Blue Jays under .500. The Cubs are more or less tied for the last wild card spot and are very much alive. But they’ve got to start stacking series wins again, particularly at home.