Cubs 3, Cardinals 2 (5.12.17)

In Postgame by berselius89 Comments

OSS: Eddie Butler exceeds expectations in his debut

Three up:

  1. Butler threw six innings of shutout ball. Things were rocky early, as Butler walked two batters in the first and was racking up a large pitch count early in the game, possibly due to adrenaline jitters, but he settled down as the game went on. I'm a little baffled at how a guy who throws a 2 seamer at 95 had such a low minor league strikeout rate. At least, that's what Coomer seemed to think he was throwing most of the time. Pat and Ron were all over his baseball card stats in Iowa on the broadcast in general. I still don't have the highest hopes for Butler, but I think he is probably better than Brett Anderson. His line on the day was 6 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 3 BB, 5 K, and both hits were infield singles.
  2. Willson Contreras had a great game at the plate, launching his second and third home runs of the year. He also picked off Dex at first base to end the seventh inning.
  3. Tommy La Stella also added an insurance homer in the seventh that turned out to be the winning run. He was only in the game because both Bryant and Jay were scratched with illness/injury early in the game.

Three down:

  1. The Cubs almost blew this one with an error in the bottom of the ninth on a play that should have ended the game. Kolten Wong struck out on a dropped third strike for the apparent third out, but Contreras's throw to Rizzo was not great, and neither was Rizzo's catch attempt.
  2. The position player WPA trailer on the day was Candelario, though I do seem to remember some hard hit balls in the innings that I caught on the radio.
  3. On the pitching side, Carl Edwards Jr had a rough outing, giving up a solo shot to Grichuk and walking two batters before getting bailed out by Contreras's pickoff of Dex. Rondon got the easiest relief appearance that you can get out of it.

Next up: Jon Lester takes on Carlos Martinez at 3:05 PM CT

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  5. Berselius

    To-day’s base ball squadron

    LF Schwarber
    RF Happ
    1B Rizzo
    3B Candelario
    2B La Stella
    C Contreras
    SS Baez
    P Lester
    CF Almora

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  24. dmick89

    Rizzo the Rat,

    Sliding past the base to me means that the player can no longer make contact with the base. Happ did, but obviously they mean that the player can’t have any body part go past the base by a quarter inch.

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  32. cerulean

    Imagine how great this offense would be with Schwarber and Rizzo not grounding out to the left side.

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  34. cerulean

    I have this novel idea that no one has ever thought of before: If we can track pitches really well with computers, wouldn’t it be possible to have a computer call balls and strikes? That seems like it would be a great idea.

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  39. Rizzo the Rat

    Note to Cubs hitters: if you’re going to hit a ball 400 feet, try hitting it anywhere but center field.

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  53. Perkins

    I was about to say this feels like one of those games where the Cubs get a bunch of guys on base and don’t score, and lose by a couple runs. Right on cue, Jake gives up a HR.

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  56. Smokestack Lightning

    dmick89:
    Arrieta sucks. I miss good Arrieta.

    Yeah, me too.

    Don’t worry, tho, that guy will be back next year with St. Louis. (dying laughing)

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  57. Perkins

    Carpenter’s first career hit off Arrieta is a HR because of course it is.

    Feeling really happy that the Cubs and Arrieta weren’t able to work out that extension.

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  61. Perkins

    That seems wrong that Montero is out because he was trying to avoid the collision with Wainwright as he blocked the line.

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  66. Smokestack Lightning

    Perkins:
    I’m fully expecting a huge overpay for Chris Archer Trevor Cahill near the trade deadline. I’m okay with it.

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  67. cerulean

    I changed my mind, The Cubs won’t win another game for the rest of the year. All is lost. #fireTheo

    j/k—we’re all gonna die in a nuclear holocaust because of a toddler in a suit.

    Happy last Mother’s Day!

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  68. Perkins

    cerulean,

    I keep wondering how long until an obese senior citizen who never exercises and has the world’s most stressful job has a massive heart attack.

    I realize he still probably doesn’t understand why the job is stressful (or that he should understand why), but you’d think the constant scandal and scrutiny would have the same effect on someone with the large and fragile ego he has.

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  70. Edwin

    “I said, “You don’t use steam anymore for catapult?” “No sir.” I said, “Ah, how is it working?” “Sir, not good. Not good. Doesn’t have the power. You know the steam is just brutal. You see that sucker going and steam’s going all over the place, there’s planes thrown in the air.”

    It sounded bad to me. Digital. They have digital. What is digital? And it’s very complicated, you have to be Albert Einstein to figure it out. And I said—and now they want to buy more aircraft carriers. I said, “What system are you going to be—” “Sir, we’re staying with digital.” I said, “No you’re not. You going to goddamned steam, the digital costs hundreds of millions of dollars more money and it’s no good.”

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  72. Perkins

    Edwin:
    Maddon seems like kind of an asshole about the whole sliding into 2nd base rule.

    Probably just blowing off steam in light of the Cubs’ shocking underperformance. I’m curious what the mood is in the clubhouse. The only really bad stretch they’ve hit like this was last June/early July, and they’d already built an insurmountable division lead before that.

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  74. cerulean

    Edwin:
    “I said, “You don’t use steam anymore for catapult?” “No sir.” I said, “Ah, how is it working?” “Sir, not good. Not good. Doesn’t have the power. You know the steam is just brutal. You see that sucker going and steam’s going all over the place, there’s planes thrown in the air.”

    It sounded bad to me. Digital. They have digital. What is digital? And it’s very complicated, you have to be Albert Einstein to figure it out. And I said—and now they want to buy more aircraft carriers. I said, “What system are you going to be—” “Sir, we’re staying with digital.” I said, “No you’re not. You going to goddamned steam, the digital costs hundreds of millions of dollars more money and it’s no good.”

    A Pentagon official said Mr Trump’s comments surprised defence officials and were inaccurate.

    “You can see elements of reality in what he said, but I think he may have spoken without having all of the information in front of him,” the official told the Washington Post.

    “I think he either has time-late information, or the information he has is not correct.”

    Donald Trump is playing 8-dimensional chess, obviously.

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  75. dmick89

    cerulean,

    My favorite part is that the defense department is not convinced that if they give him all the information that it will matter. In other words, they think he’s a fucking idiot.

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  79. dmick89

    I believe you should do the best you can to protect the fielder, but this rule takes what was clearly a legal slide and makes it illegal. How many injuries are there at 2nd base anyway?

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  82. dmick89

    Edwin,

    Can’t the president declassify anything he wants to? I haven’t read the article yet so I don’t know what it’s about. I just saw some notification about this a little while ago.

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  85. dmick89

    Perkins: I’m curious what the mood is in the clubhouse. The only really bad stretch they’ve hit like this was last June/early July, and they’d already built an insurmountable division lead before that.

    It’s probably not much different at this point. There’s still so much time left in the season and it’s not like anyone has pulled too far ahead yet. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the players are beginning to question themselves a little bit. I’m sure Heyward was questioning his performance at this point last year so I’m sure some are. If this keeps up for another few weeks or so I think the mood will begin to change a bit in the clubhouse. I don’t expect it to become toxic or anything and certainly not within the next few weeks. I just doubt much has changed at this point.

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  88. cerulean

    dmick89,

    The brightside of these struggles is the redemption narrative it tells—arguably better than the underdog narrative they had in 2015. In a sense, that was the narrative they took to a World Series championship. The NLDS, the NLCS, and then really dramatically in the Series—coming back from the brink to take a commanding lead and give it up, only to get the lead back and almost give it up again.

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