Cubs 8, Sox 3

In Postgame by berselius88 Comments

OSS: Cubs bats get over their bizarre Big Game James issues, Arrieta has a solid performance, and the Cubs are back in first place.

Three up:

  1. Jake looked pretty good tonight, and his final line was 6.2 IP, 2 H, 2R, 2 BB, 5 K. Obviously Jay Carrieta isn't walking through that door anymore, but this was a solid start. He had great movement on his pitches and was generally around the strike zone. Perkins pointed out in the game thread that Arrieta only throwing ~60% strikes wouldn't cut it against a real MLB team, but that seems kind of normal to me. At least by the eyeball norm, that's roughly what he did in most of his starts in 2015-16 too*.

     

    *While looking up these stats I stumbled across this fangraphs article about "Jacob" Arrieta and Wade Davis. Fun times!

  2. The Cubs hitters started off slowly against Shields, but came through as the game went on. Rizzo had the best day at the plate, going 3-4 with four RsBI including a bases-clearing double that lodged under the tarp at the base of the wall.
  3. Jon Jay made a hell of a catch early in the game, and was pretty good at the plate today too. He reached base three times and drove in a run.

Three down:

  1. Shields still has Bryant's number for some reason, though at least he put two balls in play this time.
  2. Ian Happ was the only Cub not to reach base in this one. Well, sort of. He did reach on a fielders choice that nailed Zobrist at the plate.
  3. He made up for it somewhat with a late homer, but Addison Russell had a rough game up to that point including a bases loaded flyout to end the Cubs first rally against Shields.

Next up: Jon Lester takes on Mike Pelfrey at 7:10 PM CT. If the Cubs win, they get the Crosstown Cup back (assuming the White Sox haven't traded it for some A-ball second baseman). If they lose and split the series, ownership of the cup goes to the electoral college or something.

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  9. Rice Cube

    White Sox have traded away all their good relievers so Cubs should have an easier time mounting their comeback if needed.

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  16. cerulean

    Other names to make an appearance in that 7-year-old FanGraphs post: Jon Lester, James Shields, John Danks, Felix Hernandez, David Price, Cliff Lee, Jered Weaver. That’s a fascinating snapshot of some of the “best” pitchers in baseball.

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  21. cerulean

    Bryce Harper is 3–3 with 10 total bases. All he needs is a homerun and a double to match Kris Bryant’s full house from last year.

    Zimmerman just hit one out. Brewers are now down by single digits…in hexadecimal (dying laughing)

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  27. cerulean

    Well, that was fun. I am rooting for a complete Brewers’ bullpen meltdown as preparation for the coming series and then an extended losing streak for the Nats. The Cubs will be eight games back after this game, assuming the Drunkards don’t mount (probably) the greatest comeback in the history of the game.

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  39. dmick89

    I saw some notification about Ichiro getting a base hit on a 45 mph eephus pitch. Then I looked around today and saw it was off of some position player. Can someone tell me where the story is here? A non-pitcher threw at non-pitching speeds and it makes mlb.com?

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  43. Berselius is too lazy to login

    Rizzo the Rat:
    Berselius,

    I don’t get putting three lefties in a row. The White Sox do have southpaws in their bullpen.

    After this week’s trades , I think their bullpen is just a picture of a tumbleweed.

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  45. dmick89

    cerulean,

    I’ve always thought it was an easy time for a player to hit an inside the park home run since the fielders walk off. I wouldn’t be satisfied with a game-winning single. I’d keep going. We could have a new metric: uncontested inside the park home run.

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  50. cerulean

    …4.8 out of 5 stars. That’s like having a batting average of .960.

    Um, no. That’s not anything like having a batting average of .960. I could see .300. Probably a slugless .300 with a low on base, but still, a pretty good average.

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  51. Perkins

    dmick89:
    What’s going on in the White House right now is a million times crazier than I think anyone could ever have imagined.

    It’s objectively funny to see a guy say that Steve Bannon tries to suck his own dick until you realize that he represents the country in some official capacity.

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  60. cerulean

    dmick89:
    What’s going on in the White House right now is a million times crazier than I think anyone could ever have imagined.

    Speak for yourself. It’s strange comfort to know that my visceral response to his election was actually an appropriate one.

    As to these specifics, he is both more incompetent and unhinged than I thought, but no less dastardly and illiberal. (Illiberal in the classical sense—that the populace should not have freedoms.)

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  63. cerulean

    In the Willy Garcia homerun clip, you hear Stoney saying, “They’ve got AF on the hat—stands for something—I’m not sure exactly …”

    (dying laughing)

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  75. cerulean

    Jon Lester has given up two solo homeruns in each of the last two games as a show of solidarity for his equine friend.

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  82. cerulean

    11–2 with a plus-34 run differential since the break. I would be okay with them repeating that four times and splitting the last couple handfuls of games.

    103–59 would be okay.

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