OSS: Cubs win it late with more help from the sloppy Brewers defense. Three up: The Cubs ninth inning unfolded as follows La Stella popped out to SS Caratini ROE, advanced to second Heyward walk Beez ROE Zobrist RBI infield single to tie the game Happ single to CF to score two more Bryant IBB Lester safety squeeze for another …
Cubs Gameday: Cubs (2-3) at Brewers (4-2)
Time: 7:10 PM CT TV: CSN Radio: 670 the Score Cubs Happ LF Zobrist RF Bryant 3B Rizzo 1B Contreras C Almora CF Russell SS Baez 2B Lester SP Beers Cain CF Santana RF Braun LF Shaw 3B Aguilar 1B Perez 2B Arcia SS Bandy C Suter P I'm a little surprised that Villar isn't getting the nod at 2B …
Series Preview: Chicago Cubs (2-3) at Milwaukee Brewers (4-2)
The Cubs early season road trip continues, this time with another four game set on the road. Strange schedules are strange. Team Leaders Now that the Cubs are facing another team that did not trade 95% of its roster in the offseason, I'll use the teams' 2017 numbers here instead. Cubs OBP: Kris Bryant (.409) ISO: Ian Happ (.261) HR: …
Reds 1, Cubs 0 (4.2.18)
TSS*: Sometimes you have to tip your cap to a great opponent with a great pitching staff. Other times, your cap falls off because you facepalm so hard. Three up At least this wasn't an extra inning game. Justin Wilson had a scoreless, two strikeout inning. The Cubs struck out Joey Votto twice, which should be something like 10% of …
Series Preview: Chicago Cubs (2-2) at Cincinnati Reds (0-3)
The Cubs had about as brutal a 2-2 road series split as you can get, and now head to Cincy for a quick two game set with the Reds. Possibly a one game set, given the forecast for Tuesday. The Reds kicked off the 2018 season by getting swept at home by the Nats. Team Leaders Now that the Cubs …
Cubs 10, Marlins 6 (10 innings)
OSS: A win's a win. Three up: Kyle Schwarber hit a 2 billion foot (est.) home run in the second inning. The early returns on the slimmed-down War Bear's defense are meh, but his power certainly doesn't seem to be affected. Ben Zobrist has been crushing the ball in his first two starts, which is great to see after his …
Marlins 2, Cubs 1 (17 innings)
OSS: The most annoying kind of loss. Three up: Despite eventually blowing the lead, the new look Cubs bullpen was pretty good in this one. The Pen pitched 10+ innings of shutout baseball, including seven innings from Eddie Butler who posted a whopping .898 WPA in this one. Kyle Hendricks looks pretty good, and was hitting 88 or so on …
Cubs 8, Marlins 4 (3.29.18)
OSS: Cubs power their way past some sloppy play. Three up: Ian Happ started this game off with a bang, sending the first pitch of the 2018 season into the RF seats. Rizzo and Schwarber followed him later in the game, and I'm a little surprised in retrospect that the Cubs had *only* three homers in this one. The 2017 …
Series Preview: Chicago Cubs (0-0) at Miami Marlins (0-0)
Baseball. It's back! The Cubs kick off the season with a warmup four game set against the Marlins, widely expected to be a disaster this year. Derek Jeter's calm eyes have overseen a PR debacle as the Marlins sold off everything that wasn't nailed down, only because they couldn't find a buyer for the nails. The only surprise is that …
NL Central Offseason Whip-Around: Milwaukee Brewers
I've been my usual lazy self and not paid much attention to the goings on around the league this offseason. At least MLB has obliged by keeping things pretty quiet. Finally we take a look at the Brewers, who started winning ahead of schedule last year and missed out on some pieces they could have used to bootstrap that process. …