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The inflection point that led to Marcus Stroman’s surprise start on Saturday came three days earlier, when he warmed up to come out of the bullpen but never made it into the game.
Manager David Ross had hoped his team was about to close the gap against the Pirates, but instead, the Cubs fell further behind. And Stroman sat back down.
Stroman had been back from the injured list for six days at that point, and he’d thrown a total of three innings, in back-to-back games against the Diamondbacks last weekend.