OSS: Good pitching and great defense pick up another W.
Three+ up:
- Alec Mills had another solid start, pitching seven shutout innings with four strikeouts and three walks. I caught the first few innings on TV and thought it was shaping up to be an extremely fifth-starter-ish performance, but then I blinked and it was suddenly the seventh inning.
- Javy Baez and David Bote had great defensive plays in this one. Javy had yet another #JavyTag, and it still blows my mind what kind of spatial awareness he has on these kinds of plays. Bote had a great play going to his right when a Royal hit a ball against the shift and displayed a Javy-esque arm gunning the runner down.
- Kris Bryant homered in his first game back from his stomach bug. Kris Bryant’s bat potentially warming up was just what the rest of the division didn’t need (dying laughing).
- I had to add this comment from andcounting in the last thread, since it was on point:
Ross took Kimbrel out of the closer’s role after 11 batters faced. We can say it was an obvious choice, but he didn’t use him in a save situation, and that dude’s making a pro-rated ton of money. And he made that call after 11 batters faced and with plenty of rest for Kimbrel, and he’s avoided any major verbal explosions about it in the media so far. Also the Cubs somehow avoided losing either of the games in which Kimbrel melted down or any late-inning leads since then.
All of this with a team who actually seems to be having fun and simultaneously following an unprecedented set of restrictions and guidelines and stresses.
It’s a young season, but Ross isn’t embarrassing himself.
Three down:
- More Cardinals tested positive today, but things are still tentatively on for the Cubs-Cards series this weekend. It sounds like several players left the hotel to hit up a casino prior to this outbreak. Who knows if that was actually the vector, but it’s not a great look fellas.
- It was a tough day for Willson Contreras, who went 0-4 with three strikeouts.
- Mark Grace was, uh, not great as the quasi-third guy in the booth and his audio setup was not exactly what Marquee probably wanted either. But the weirdest thing was that when Len brought up the new extra innings rule, all of them agreed that they liked it a lot more than they thought they would, and even more surprisingly I kinda agreed with them. Maybe we just lucked out with a couple of exciting half innings, but it’s nice not to have to gird one’s loins for a potential slog that ends up getting decided because some team ran out of relievers. I was prepared to hate it, but I think I kind of like it now? Hopefully we’ll have chances to take a bigger sample size of this going forward.
Next up: Brady Singer takes on Cyle at 7:15 PM CT, before both teams head to KC for two more games.
Comments
I’m still laughing at that Javy tag. It looks like he’s telekinetically altering the path of the baseball.
andcountingQuote Reply
Len talked about some comments that Danny Duffy made about how team leadership when he was a rookie was terrible and basically was all about hazing. Then he asked Grace something like, Are rookies these days too soft? Felt like Grace had to bite his tongue before telling a story about how helpful Sutcliffe was to him as a rookie. For a second, I thought Grace’s announcing career was about to be over.
BVSQuote Reply
I’ve seen the extra innings rule multiple times at Myrtle Beach. I hate it, still. I think we got lucky throwing out two baserunners.
I like the three batter reliever rule, and am coming around on the NL DH.
Wish we had robot umps.
BVSQuote Reply
Yeah I was expecting a mess too but thought Grace actually made some pretty self-reflective points, especially about how clubhouses back in his day had way more veterans than they do now. Was definitely smart of him to punt to JD to go first though (dying laughing).
berseliusQuote Reply
BVS,
Yeah we got lucky with some exciting plays, not to mention the fact that the Cubs won. It’s weird, but it’s also making me reassess if games that can boil down to bullpen attrition that fuck pitching staffs up for days afterwards are any better.
berseliusQuote Reply
berselius,
JD is definitely more polished. That was a smart move by Grace.
berselius,
I’d be ok with the 2b runner rule starting in the 12th.
BVSQuote Reply
https://twitter.com/craigcalcaterra/status/1290362989372153858
berseliusQuote Reply
That’s unfortunate. HBT was one of my regular places to check for baseball news.
PerkinsQuote Reply
Perkins,
I was just checking it this afternoon and was confused by the fact that all the new articles had generic AP bylines. Bummer.
berseliusQuote Reply
J-Hey!
berseliusQuote Reply
For a guy who made a decent amount of money, Mark Grace looks like a fan of Van Heusen.
PerkinsQuote Reply
Kipnis!
PerkinsQuote Reply
Schwarbunt (dying laughing)
PerkinsQuote Reply
Looks like MLB has decided to keep the rosters at 28, instead of dropping down to 26 in a few weeks as was originally planned. They’re also adding a few guys to the taxi squad.
berseliusQuote Reply
Cmon, Tony.
berseliusQuote Reply
Really hope that inning doesn’t come back to bite them.
PerkinsQuote Reply
Kimbel inc
berseliusQuote Reply
Willie!
berseliusQuote Reply
Kimbrel. Oh…goody.
PerkinsQuote Reply
Sigh.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
He looked a little sharper, but still too much hard contact.
PerkinsQuote Reply
M —–> barely inverted
berseliusQuote Reply
Somehow, the Cubs’ bullpen has yet to blow a save. Kimbrel has two holds.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Rizzo the Rat,
Remember when they had 42 blown saves at this point last year? And I don’t mean in August, I mean after 2 weeks.
andcountingQuote Reply
Goddammit people — who here used the monkey’s paw again? Remember what happened the last time it was used? Yeah, the Cubs did win it all in 2016 — setting off a long national nightmare…
ceruleanQuote Reply
http://www.obstructedview.net/cubs-5-royals-4/
berseliusQuote Reply