Cubs 3, Reds 2

In Postgame by berselius83 Comments

OSS: Ian Happ blasts a HR to lead an exhausted Cubs team past the Reds.

Three up:

  1. Things weren’t looking great for the offense, but it all changed on one swing of the bat by Happ. It was his first hit in over a week.
  2. Cole Hamels gave up back to back jacks to Joey Votto (not so surprising) and Jose Peraza (wut), but was otherwise what the Cubs needed with a gassed/injured bullpen. Hamels struck out seven in 6.2 innings.
  3. Joe said it was going to be a different crew to close out this game, and it was Maples-Garcia-De la Rosa that picked things up from Hamels and hung on for the W. The ninth was a bit of an adventure, but Garcia’s inning looked nothing like his ‘start’ last weekend, thank the maker.

Three down:

  1. It looks like Pedro Strop is donezo for the regular season. I wouldn’t expect much in the postseason either, considering how little Joe trusted a similarly recently injured Strop in 2016.
  2. It was not a great day for The Greatest Leadoff Hitter of All Time, who went 0-4 today. Despite yesterday’s litany of complaints against Maddon I do like how he’s been rotating guys through the leadoff spot this year, challenging the very definition of the Lead Off Guy.
  3. The Cubs best scoring chance was in the fourth inning, when they had two on with no outs against Harvey. Bote hit into a DP and suddenly it was Hamels up with two out, fizzling the rally before it ever really started.

Next up: Jon Lester takes on Cody Reed at 3 PM CT.

 

Also, I’ll be in the Chicago burbs for work Sun-Wed: if anyone here wants to grab a beer somewhere let me know.

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  1. brett

    Always been lurker on this sight. But if anyone comes through central Illinois…Cub fan of course…I would be more than happy (especially Happy tonight) to buy a beverage at my place. Y-Zoe’s in Taylorville, IL.
    Not a plug at all! I’m stuck in central IL having grown up in NW Indiana as a Cubs fan. Now I’m stuck in Cardinal territory.

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  2. dmick89

    Smokestack Lightning:
    I’m beginning to think Kris Bryant isn’t himself right now.

    No, he’s clearly still injured. I just hope we get him back healthy in 2019 and that this doesn’t become a thing. With his swing it very easily could be. I’m curious if he’s had this happen before.

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  3. Perkins

    If the Pirates beat the Brewers tonight, I’ll feel a lot better about the divisional race.

    Also (dying laughing) Cardinals.

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  4. Smokestack Lightning

    dmick89: No, he’s clearly still injured. I just hope we get him back healthy in 2019 and that this doesn’t become a thing. With his swing it very easily could be. I’m curious if he’s had this happen before.

    Seems I came across an article about Bryce Harper having a similar shoulder problem not too long ago. Wrecked the season he had the issue, but he’s been fine since.

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  5. dmick89

    They’ve had one day off since August 13th. I would imagine this isn’t as big a deal for the pitchers and Joe has tried to rest the hitters some so physically they might be okay. I’m guessing they’re mentally exhausted though.

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  6. Smokestack Lightning

    dmick89:
    Smokestack Lightning,

    Was that the mysterious injury he had in 2016? Everybody in the organization denied it was a shoulder injury if I recall correctly.

    Sorry, just saw this.

    I got the ref to the Harper injury from this piece:

    https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/kris-bryants-shoulder-injury-has-zapped-his-power-and-may-ultimately-wreck-his-season/

    Being that far back in the mists of time—2016, a veritable lifetime ago—I forgot there was some controversy whether he had a bum shoulder or not. So, may not be applicable.

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  7. SK

    On the plus side, Pat told the Ronnie-Mets-Toupée-on-Fire story for the 93,283rd time yesterday and although I groaned when he brought it up, it turns out he has really perfected his storytelling – it was a comedy masterpiece.

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  8. Ryno

    “Oh hell no. That’s insanely violent and dangerous. 15 yards.”

    The post-game explanation by the ref was great:

    “Picked the QB up?” So we’re just making shit up now?

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  9. dmick89

    Myles:
    You can make a compelling argument that Tyler Chatwood had the worst season in the modern era of baseball.

    I knew Tyler Chatwood was going to suck because there was no reason to put much faith in the whole elite spin rate nonsense, but he took sucking to an entirely new level this year. If I was the Cubs, I’d pay him twice what he’s owed to go play for Milwaukee.

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  10. Author
    berselius

    Ryno,

    It was a horseshit call, but I’m not going to pretend that Clay Matthews doesn’t have a mountain of bad karma against him when it comes to QB hits.

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