Hello! It’s your replacement writer from Heroes and Goats again. As mentioned last week, Thomas Smith is gone and will return this weekend for the final game of the Blue Jays series.

In its place, I will just post the table for the game, the three heroes and three goats, and the player of the game poll. Thomas will keep you updated on the H&G rankings when he returns.

So let’s get started!

Fangraphs

That’s quite a WPA chart.

As a reminder, Heroes and Goats are determined by WPA ratings and are in no way subjective.

THREE HEROES:

• Superhero: Ian Happ (.241). 1-for-2, HR (20), 3 BB, 2 outfield assists
• Hero: Patrick Wisdom (.194). 1-for-2, doubles
• Buddy: Jorge Lopez (.076).

THREE GOATS:

• Billy Goat: Shōta Imanaga (-.497). 5 IP, 7 R (3 ER), 2 HR
• Goat: Julian Merryweather (-.271). IP, 3 H, 1 BB, 1 R
• Child: Isaac Paredes (-.083). 1-for-2, 2 BB, crucial error

In my opinion, WPA was particularly unfair to Imanaga in this game. He didn’t pitch particularly well, but four of the runs weren’t his fault.

WPA move of the game: John Kensy Noel’s three-run homer against Imanaga in the fourth inning gave Cleveland a 4-3 lead. (.352)

*Cubs play of the game: Patrick Wisdom’s double in the eighth inning moved Ian Happ to third base, where Happ eventually scored the tying run. (.209)

Justin Steele won the PoTG ​​poll for Sunday’s game with 55 percent, Miguel Amaya with 44 percent.

Cubs Player of the Game:

Next: The second of three games against the Guardians in Cleveland. Javier Assad (5-3, 3.24) faces left-hander Matthew Boyd. Boyd will pitch his first MLB game in over a year after his Tommy John surgery.