Javier Assad had been one of the hottest pitchers in baseball over the last few weeks.
Meanwhile, Arizona’s Ryne Nelson had pitched so poorly that he had been demoted to Triple-A about a month ago.
Easy win for the Cubs, right? Nope, trap game. Assad didn’t pitch too badly, but got victimized by a pair of home runs, and Nelson no-hit the Cubs until the fifth inning — because baseball, of course. The result was a 6-2 Cubs loss to the D-backs on a coolish early fall evening at Wrigley Field.
Tommy Pham homered off Assad in the top of the first.