OSS: The Cubs are back, or something!
Three up:
- The Cubs cruised to a sweep on the back of a pile of home runs. Today, Jason Heyward, Albert Almora, and Kyle Schwarber brought the lumber, and their three home runs brought their total in the three game series to six. Heyward’s go-ahead shot in the second was the Cubs biggest play of the game by WPA.
- Q was solid enough today, getting the nominal quality start by giving up three runs on six hits and two walks in six innings. Four of those six hits were in the third inning, when the Pirates managed to string together a bunch of singles, which more or less led to all of their runs. Q also helped himself with an RBI single an inning later.
- Rizzo and Robel Garcia were just behind Heyward in WPA. They combined in the second inning to score the Cubs first run of the game.
BONUS: Brewers lose, and the Cubs now have their largest division lead of the season.
Three down:
- Contreras is dealing with a sore foot and is probably day to day, as are we all. The Cubs wanted to keep him fresh so he doesn’t fade down the stretch, and it helps that Caratini is raking so far this year.
- Heyward had both the best and worst play by WPA – in addition to the home run mentioned above he also GIDP to nearly kill a Cubs rally in the second.
- Berselius is too lazy to write anything for weeks at a time.
Next up: The Reds come to town for a three game set. Luis Castillo takes on Cyle at 7:05 PM CT on Monday.
Comments
Double header in Myrtle Beach tonight.
Ryan Kellogg is doing his best 2018 Chatwood imitation. The Pelican offense is crap. Pretty likely Game 1 will be 2 games in a row I’ve seen MB shut out by 6 or more runs. Bonus though is 2018 draft picks 2-4 are all here now. We’ll see. Also Ademan (meh) and Amaya.
BVSQuote Reply
Amaya sac fly.
WE SAW A RUN SCORE!!!
BVSQuote Reply
The highlight of game 1 was watching Amaya fistbump all the folks in the front row by the dugout as he came out on deck.
Ethan Roberts looked pretty good in relief.
BVSQuote Reply
Should be 4 up
4. Brewers lost
Should also be 4 down
4. Brewers and Pirates lost making the 5-way tie scenario dream less likely
dmick89Quote Reply
Big if true
WaLiQuote Reply
dmick89,
The Cubs will have a lot of influence on the tie possibilities as long as things stay reasonably close. They have only six games outside the division in September.
andcountingQuote Reply
Nice to see one of these again. Better not be the last either.
Otherwise… I will complain on the internet.
Smokestack LightningQuote Reply
Game 2 of the Pelican double header was much better. Paul Richan pitched a CG (7inn). He gave up hard contact in first, triple double out out triple out and 2 runs, but only faced one batter over minimum the rest of the way. He really looked great tonight. Had Hillcat batters taking silly swings. (Much better than his A+ debut last Sunday, which I also saw. That one he gave up like 6 r in 4 ip. Highlight of that game was that the fam sung the 7th inn stretch.)
MB tied it a couple innings later on a long homer by Farrell.
Delvin Zinn was an absolute vacuum at SS. He looks much better there to me than Ademan. Throws were bullets to first and he got to all kinds of balls. Hit pretty well too.
Kids had fun. A friend of ours was in the between inning knockerball contest. Not too many scouts in attendance tonight.
Game 1 loser, Kellogg, apparently already on DL.
BVSQuote Reply
BVS,
Don’t know if you guys care about this stuff, but at least it is Cub related, unlike what I ususally post.
BVSQuote Reply
How the fuck else would you have meant the word ‘No,’ Keith?
RynoQuote Reply
Ryno,
Maybe sometimes no means yes?
BVSQuote Reply
[Cuts to Bill Cosby nodding]
JKVQuote Reply
BVS,
Only a figurative no.
RynoQuote Reply
Ryno,
I’ve spent entirely too much time thinking about this and don’t really know why I’m attempting to defend his use of the word *literally* here. I guess it’s because I feel like I know what he meant even though I can’t verbalize why it seems clear to me and I can verbalize why it’s confusing. Here’s my best attempt at playing poor grammarian’s advocate:
He means his “No” is not an exaggeration, the way you might say, “No,” in response to the question “Have you ever met anyone like Fred,” even though technically, literally, you know of 15 people who are really quite like Fred, but they’re all pretty weird, which is the question you know is being asked in a slightly more polite way than simply, “Isn’t Fred weird as fuck?” Instead he means to say, “No, literally, without figurative techniques such as hyperbole and overstatement, I can tell you I have never met someone who, like Robel, made it to the majors by way of the Italian baseball leagues. He’s no dime-a-dozen freak of nature like Fred.”
Ok, my time has officially been wasted and documented as such.
andcountingQuote Reply
No Contreras in the lineup today, and I mean that literally.
berseliusQuote Reply
berselius,
(dying laughing)
dmick89Quote Reply
I’m a little annoyed that Vic didn’t run out a pop-up that blew into fair territory.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Hendricks seems to be getting squeezed and pitching up in the zone. Not feeling super optimistic.
PerkinsQuote Reply
Schwarber obliterated that ball.
andcountingQuote Reply
Perkins,
It’s weird, from the targets he’s getting and the consistency of the locations, it looks like he’s trying to get everyone out swinging at shit high out of the zone. It doesn’t even seem like he wants called strikes.
andcountingQuote Reply
Stupid wind.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Jesus, David.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
That would have been a good time to add on.
PerkinsQuote Reply
Damn it, David.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Javy really hates to walk.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
There is an aspect of this Cubs team I thought I rather liked, but I can’t remember what that might be.
andcountingQuote Reply
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Smokestack LightningQuote Reply
Is there any chance of Almora not hitting into a double play here?
andcountingQuote Reply
So no.
andcountingQuote Reply
Yes.Smokestack LightningQuote Reply
Brewers lose.
PerkinsQuote Reply
Martin Maldonado—->Cubs
Mike Montgomery——>Royals
I wonder if the injury to Contreras is worse than expected.
PerkinsQuote Reply
Perkins,
I think he’s headed to the IL, but they expect he’ll be back in 10 days. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Caratini dealt around the deadline.
dmick89Quote Reply
I’m not one for trying to act like I know more than the professionals, but how Brad Brach is still on this team is beyond me.
To think how bad his numbers would be if he had to finish the innings he started.
JKVQuote Reply
andcounting,
I see what you’re saying and understand what Law was trying to say, but a pedantic asshole like him can’t get away with saying something that stupid. There are literally several other ways to convey the same point. “Emphatic no.” “No. No one has.” “GTFO, faget.” And so on…
RynoQuote Reply
dmick89,
Other option is 3 catchers. Not like they haven’t done that before. Contreras occasionally in OF, Caratini occasionally at 1b or 3b, Maldonado occasionally at C. I like getting Rizzo some more off days and he seems to be the hardest to sub for.
Bote made some great plays at 3b over the weekend, but that error yesterday where he didn’t get in front of the ball was pretty bad. Guess the ASB rest is over. Anyway, I think this trade makes Caratini more likely to be traded, but also makes it more likely Bote could be too.
BVSQuote Reply
JKV,
I’ve been wondering this since late May. But no one here at OV has provided an answer. Come on guys! No wonder this blog is discredited. (dying laughing)
BVSQuote Reply
Ryno,
You right, you right.
andcountingQuote Reply
FTFY.
— Your pal, Keith
RynoQuote Reply
Ryno,
(dying laughing)
BVSQuote Reply
BVS,
If I were to defend Brach’s existence on the roster, I’d point to two numbers: his K/9 (10.5) and his HR/9 (0.5). He strikes out just over 25% of the batters he faces. The lower homer rate is maybe more impressive this season? Just don’t look at any other numbers, and he’s a great pitcher.
andcountingQuote Reply
andcounting,
When I played ball as a kid, my HBP/PA ratio was fantastic. If you didn’t look at any other numbers, I was a great batter.
BVSQuote Reply
To-day’s base ball squadron
LF War Bear
SS Baez
3B Bryant
1B Rizzo
2B Garcia
RF Heyward
CF Almora
C Maldonado
SP Mills
berseliusQuote Reply
berselius,
The only way Alec Mills gets the win is is if the Pirates let him pitch too.
andcountingQuote Reply
BVS,
Wait, are you Derek Dietrich?
andcountingQuote Reply
Eugenio Suarez is on board with the 5-way tie plan.
andcountingQuote Reply
Dietrich needs a fastball in his earhole, no offense, BVS.
andcountingQuote Reply
5-way tie got a shout-out on the poscast today! (or whenever this most recent one posted.) joe and KT fully support it.
it was actually a pretty good poscast…can’t remember the last one that was remotely listenable but this one was decent. it will never get back to what it was though.
EnricoPallazzoQuote Reply
Bryant!
WaLiQuote Reply
So I think Baez just got called HBP by the ump and Baez denied it saying it hit the bat not his arm.
WaLiQuote Reply
What happened to Rizzo’s power?
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Fixed.
No
BVSQuote Reply
Jesus, Albert.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Maybe trading for another player who can’t hit a baseball at all whatsoever when the team needs offense isn’t the best of moves.
Smokestack LightningQuote Reply
Cardinals lose.
Smokestack LightningQuote Reply
Schwarber!!!!!!!
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Smokestack LightningQuote Reply
Cardinals lose.
Reds lose.
Brewers do not lose, but do not care.
Smokestack LightningQuote Reply
http://www.obstructedview.net/cubs-4-reds-3/
berseliusQuote Reply