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 8, Brewers 0 (4/5/2018)
OSS: It's the Javy Baez show. Three Up 1. Javy Baez walked 3 times, scored from 1st on an error, and was generally awesome. He had a rough go of the first series of the year, so it's nice to see him with his first-ever 3 walk game. 2. Jon Lester was really good tonight (Ron Coomer's player of the …
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 …
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 …
NLCS Game 5: Dodgers 11, Cubs 1
OSS: Well, it wasn't a sweep. Two up: At least this one was over quickly. Um…the pitching staff only issued two walks? Time to deal with my DVR/streaming backlog! Hannibal and Halt and Catch Fire, I'm looking at you. Three down: Quintana just didn't have it tonight, and the Dodgers made him pay. I look forward to his next few …
NLCS Game 4: Cubs 3, Dodgers 2
OSS: Three up: Javy Baez homered twice, and Willson Contreras hit the longest HR of the entire season across all MLB (assuming I heard the announcers right) to account for all of the Cubs runs, which was just enough to hold on. The Cubs even managed to put some balls in play! We were hoping for Vintage Jake, but we …
NLCS Game Three: Dodgers 6, Cubs 1
OSS: Cubs lose in all aspects of the game. Three up: Kyle Schwarber got the scoring started with an opposite field solo HR against Darvish in the first inning. Unfortunately, that is also when the scoring stopped. Kris Bryant had two hits and didn't strike out for what seems like the first time in the last month. We didn't have …
NLCS Game 2: Dodgers 4, Cubs 1
OSS: Showalter'd. Three up: Addison Russell struck the only major Cubs blow in this one with a line drive homer to left that briefly gave the Cubs the lead. The bullpen proper performed much better in this one, especially Carl Edwards Jr. Foolish bottom of the ninth decisions aside, Edwards, Strop, and Duensing combined for four innings, allowing just one …