Cubs 3, Braves 2 (5.15.18)

In Postgame by berselius109 Comments

OSS: Cubs mount a late comeback to eke out a win.

Three up:

  1. The Cubs came back in the top of the ninth against erstwhile Cubs hurler Arodys Vizcaino, thanks to a hustle double by Almora and run scoring hits by Addy and Zobrist to tie and lead the game, respectively. To be technically correct, the best kind of correct, Zobrist’s go-ahead single had a bigger WPA than his more famous double from a few years back that you may have heard of.
  2. Yu Darvish was okay in this one, striking out five in four innings and allowing two walks and a solo shot to Inciarte. He left with some leg cramping after throwing only 61 pitches, and the Cubs were probably taking it easy after his trip to the “DL”.
  3. The bullpen was solid in relief of Darvish’s short outing, allowing one run and just two hits over five innings. Said run was given up by Edwards to Ronald Acuna, who might be good at baseball.

Three down:

  1. The Cubs got a lot of help from Barves TOOTBLANs in this one. Freddie Freeman tried to score following a throwing error on a steal attempt by Willie but was gunned down by War Bear. In the fifth, they had runners at the corners with no outs thanks to a Baez error but saw both guys get thrown out on the bases on plays that even Coomer had to admit the umps blew.
  2. Until that ninth inning comeback, the Cubs lone run was on a sequence that went double, walk, dropped third strike, wild pitch. Not exactly a recipe for a sustainable offense. Foltynewicz lasted just five innings but struck out ten Cubs hitters.
  3. It was a rough day at the plate for Javy Baez, who went 0-4 with three strikeouts. His contact rates were looking a lot better when his bat was hot, but some Old Javy seems to be slipping into his game of late.

Next up: Tyler Chatwood takes on noted Trans-Siberian Orchestra fan Brandon McCarthy at 6:35 PM CT. I’m not sure why the Braves start games half an hour later than everyone else, I guess it’s to give fans extra time to get to their crappily located stadium boondoggle.

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  3. Rizzo the Rat

    In regards to some comments I’ve seen from “smart” Cubs fans elsewhere:

    Not rooting for Russell because you think he’s a domistic abuser: defensible.
    Concluding Russell is a bad player based on his wRC+: idiotic.

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  4. Rizzo the Rat

    Hate Russell all you want, but don’t pretend he hasn’t been a positive contributor to the Cubs’ success since 2015.

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  5. cerulean

    Rizzo the Rat,

    It’s as trivially easy to wish ill of those who have made mistakes without allowing for them to learn and grow as it is to justify the misdeeds and faulty logic of successful and productive people.

    For the record, I want Russell to learn and succeed, but obviously Machado will save the world from disaster.

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  6. dmick89

    I don’t understand why people are so upset with Russell’s performance. His wRC+ is 93, which is one point away from his career best 94. It’s better than last year and his defense seems to be back on par with what he did in 2015 and 2016. He already has 0.8 fWAR and can probably be expected to contributed another 2 to 2.5 WAR the rest of the way. Russell is not a great player, but he’s an above average one and he’s pretty cheap.

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  9. dmick89

    cerulean,

    Are people still thinking the Cubs have a legitimate shot at trading for him? Best case scenario for the Cubs at the deadline is the only need they have is in the bullpen, because I don’t think they have the minor league talent to add anything else.

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  11. cerulean

    dmick89,

    The Cubs have more than enough to land Machado—and they should because few people realize that the O’s have won 5 consecutive World Serieseseseseses in a row with no gaps in between. If the Cubs are ever going to break their hundred-plus-year drought, they need a Macho Man like Manny Machado.

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  12. dmick89

    So I did a quick google and it seems like people are mostly just coming to terms with the fact that Russell is never going to be the great player they thought he would be. That’s on them. He never really had the tools to become a great player.

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  14. Berselius is too lazy to login

    dmick89:
    I don’t understand why people are so upset with Russell’s performance. His wRC+ is 93, which is one point away from his career best 94. It’s better than last year and his defense seems to be back on par with what he did in 2015 and 2016. He already has 0.8 fWAR and can probably be expected to contributed another 2 to 2.5 WAR the rest of the way. Russell is not a great player, but he’s an above average one and he’s pretty cheap.

    My guess is that people only remember that he has just one HR this year, and scale down the rest of his numbers to match.

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  15. Myles

    Remember when Addison Russell hit a grand slam in game 6 of the 2016 World Series, a game in which the Cubs won en route to winning the 2016 World Series (coming back from a 3-1 deficit)?

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  17. Author
    berselius

    To-day’s base ball squadron

    CF Almora
    3B Bryant
    1B Rizzo
    C Contreras
    2B Baez
    LF War Bear
    SS Russell
    RF Happ
    P Chatwood

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  19. Myles

    It has literally been over a month since Javier Baez has drawn a walk (April 11). April 7th for the last unintentional walk. That’s really hard to believe.

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  21. cerulean

    Myles:
    Remember when Addison Russell hit a grand slam in game 6 of the 2016 World Series, a game in which the Cubs won en route to winning the 2016 World Series (coming back from a 3-1 deficit)?

    Machado hit two great grand slams when the O’s won the World Series in 2016. Prove me wrong.

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  46. Tyrone

    Jesse Rogers @ESPNChiCubs
    Lefty Max Fried will make his first start this season v Cubs tonight.

    Translation: Shutout.

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  47. Ryno

    I just went back and skimmed through the World Series threads and, man, that was a pretty fucking magical few weeks.

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  50. dmick89

    Ryno,

    I don’t either unless the Cubs are willing to deal Russell, Schwarber or Contreras. I don’t want that. I’d rather they wait until free agency. The O’s may not even be interested in those three. They probably want guys who will be ready in the near future and that they can control for six years at a minimum. The Cubs don’t have anyone like that that any team doesn’t already have 10 of.

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  51. Rizzo the Rat

    Ryno:
    I just went back and skimmed through the World Series threads and, man, that was a pretty fucking magical few weeks.

    I like how calm and collected I was, even when the situation looked dire.

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  52. Rizzo the Rat

    Pat Hughes just referred to Felipe Vázquez (f.k.a. Rivero) as “the player to be named later.”

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  67. Ryno

    Picked up a hitchhiker last night. He said thanks how do you know I’m not a serial killer? I replied the chances of two serial killer’s being in the same car are astronomical.

    — Gonzotrucker (@gonzotrucker) June 7, 2018

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  82. Rizzo the Rat

    Apropos of nothing in particular, I don’t think Baez is a better player than Russell, but I’d miss Baez more if he were traded.

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  83. dmick89

    Rizzo the Rat,

    If the Cubs had to trade one of them, I’d prefer they keep Addy. Baez may have more potential, but that’s questionable considering his inability to take walks. Neither player is going to be the perennial all star we hoped both would be, but both are still valuable and young enough we can expect some improvement.

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  91. Rizzo the Rat

    My favorite thing about the recent string of success is having so many ninth-inning leads, they have to do the closer-by-committee thing to avoid overworking Morrow.

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  104. Rizzo the Rat

    Joe makes a lot of questionable decisions, but pinch-hitting for Hendricks was clearly correct. Zo is a better hitter than La Stella, but it’s possible Joe promised him a day off.

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