OSS: Cubs take two of three on the road against their biggest playoff competition, and now lead by four games in the loss column.
Three up:
- Ths Cubs scored their first two runs on a two-out rally in the sixth, keyed by a Willson Contreras infield single. As I was listening to it I was thinking that it felt like the kind of inning that has tended to happen *to* the Cubs this year, not the other way around.
- Victor Caratini hit his first major league home run to put the Cubs back in the lead. For his sake, at least he got it in before the Cubs traded for another catcher (probably, as I write this).
- Lackey coughed up a two run homer just after the Cubs managed to score, but this start definitely exceeded expecations. Lackey's final line was 6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 BB 7 K. I'll take that out of a fifth starter, at least.
Three down:
- It was a very rough night for Ben Zobrist, who struck out three times and was shown so little respect that the Brewers intentionally walked Javier Baez to get to him in the ninth.
- Javy's swings were so bad yesterday that they broke the space-time continuum, in order to ensure that they showed up in this recap as well.
- Justin Wilson's numbers are pretty good, but given how the Tigers pen has been a dumpster fire for what feels like the last decade it's going to be hard to shake my subconsious wtf at this.
Next up: The Cubs have a day off, then square off with the Dbacks at Wrigley. Lester takes on Patrick Corbin, who I hope I don't call Barry Corbin at some point this week, in the opener.
Comments
Wilson is good. Tell your subconscious to be happy with the trade. Or don’t. You can’t tell it what to do.
Smokestack LightningQuote Reply
Smokestack Lightning,
He’s really good and he’s also cheap. He’ll take over for Davis after the season. I wasn’t very high on Candelario so I like this deal. Avila will be a great guy for a backup and it should allow Rizzo to get some rest down the stretch (Contreras playing 1st).
How is Avila’s defense?
dmick89Quote Reply
538 has the Dodgers finishing with 110 wins.
dmick89Quote Reply
dmick89,
I believe it. It’ll break LA into the ocean when they get swept in the NLDS.
Rice in limboQuote Reply
He tapes his fingers like a motherfucker.
RynoQuote Reply
I also have reservations about Candelario and am very happy with this trade. Candelario is by all accounts a really good guy, so I hope he makes the most of this opportunity. He had to know there was no daylight for him to start here, and he should get at least an extended look in Detroit.
MylesQuote Reply
Ryno,
(dying laughing) how tired does he look?
dmick89Quote Reply
dmick89,
There is literally nothing worse than what you just did.
RynoQuote Reply
Ryno,
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/molina-matheny-sort-through-tired-dustup/article_3b22e76d-164d-5caf-b46a-cdd100b2f72a.html
Berselius is too lazy to loginQuote Reply
I DM’ed Candelario and he immediately responded. Hell of a guy. Hope he hits .300/.400/.500.
mylesQuote Reply
The more I read about this Wilson deal, the more I like it.
Berselius is too lazy to loginQuote Reply
e.g. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/cubs-win-justin-wilson-bidding-war/
Berselius is too lazy to loginQuote Reply
Berselius is too lazy to login,
Disgusting.
RynoQuote Reply
I see Candy as a 2 win player—an average producer. Considering the troubles many teams have had at third, that is pretty valuable. Paredes will probably be Torres 2.0. Paradoxically, I hope he does. The more really good players that come out of this system, the better. (Though I would prefer they trade these guys when consensus has them at the top of the list.)
ceruleanQuote Reply
Isn’t Justin Wilson that weird redneck who had a cooking show on PBS?
uncle daveQuote Reply
uncle dave,
The Cajun cooking guy? I think so. How’d you remember him?
dmick89Quote Reply
dmick89,
Who could ever forget his gentle manner and down-home humor, David?
uncle daveQuote Reply
Steve Bartman gets a WS ring. That’s pretty awesome. Doesn’t make up for the shit he had to go through, but it’s a classy move by the Cubs.
dmick89Quote Reply
Bartman — 2016 World Series Champion. Has the hardware to prove it.
EdwinQuote Reply
dmick89,
Now if they could just bring back Sosa…
EdwinQuote Reply
Edwin,
I would have thought after a WS championship would have been a great time to do it. Sammy deserves a ring too.
dmick89Quote Reply
dmick89,
I’m rooting for him to pawn the thing, tbh.
uncle daveQuote Reply
uncle dave,
That’s what I’d do if the Cubs gave me one. The gesture is what’s important here. I couldn’t care less about the actual ring.
dmick89Quote Reply
Edwin,
I’ve never been clear on why they won’t.
uncle daveQuote Reply
uncle dave,
They apparently want him to apologize to his teammates, but why does that even matter? Lots of players have done shitty things to teammates.
dmick89Quote Reply
From what I remember the Cubs made everyone sign some legalese basically preventing this – the team basically has an option to buy it back for a dollar.
Berselius is too lazy to loginQuote Reply
Yeah, I think you’re right. Seems pretty shitty to lay that on, like, a groundskeeper making $32K a year.
uncle daveQuote Reply
dmick89,
“Guys, I’m really sorry I took the last egg salad sandwich from the training table.”
uncle daveQuote Reply
Berselius is too lazy to login,
Really? Even the players who earned them?
dmick89Quote Reply
uncle dave,
“I don’t know why I lied about it for so long. I guess I didn’t want anyone to know that I ate an egg salad sandwich.”
dmick89Quote Reply
dmick89,
“Though it’s pretty clear that you all knew about it since Ryan Dempster leaked the story to the press.”
uncle daveQuote Reply
Maybe Sosa is just waiting until whoever decided to put egg salad sandwiches out on the food services table apologizes to everyone for that terrible decision.
Berselius is too lazy to loginQuote Reply
Sosa is just waiting to complete his transformation into a Caucasian person. It’s almost complete. He just needs to buy more cashmere sweaters and change his name to Samuel Soughsa.
JonKneeVQuote Reply
The Mooch is gone. So much winning.
dmick89Quote Reply
Frankly, I’m tired of it.
mylesQuote Reply
MLB: finally, we dominate the news cycle for a day
Donald: hold my ice cream cone
mylesQuote Reply
I feel like Sorkin needs to revive the West Wing, and do it Trump Style.
EdwinQuote Reply
In my opinion, better idea:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag1o3koTLWM
mylesQuote Reply
Forget you haters—I think the Mooch did a great job. He’s a specialist ROOGY that came on to get rid of one establishment Republican and actually got rid of two. It was a brilliant double play, even if it was a little odd.
(dying laughing)
ceruleanQuote Reply
So Gray to the Yankees for a blown out knee, a speedster and a blown out arm. I think the Cubs could have done better not even using the ML roster.
EDIT: I guess Mateo has been tearing up AA, showing good discipline and power, so maybe it would have taken Happ to get the deal done. But the other two are injured, so…
ceruleanQuote Reply
Darvish——————————–>LADOLA
SKQuote Reply
yikes. tough sledding.
mylesQuote Reply
Kershaw – Lester
Darvish – Quintana
Wood – Arrieta
Hill – Hendricks
I don’t know, I think that’s pretty comparable.
Offenses are probably a different story, obviously.
mylesQuote Reply
I remember thinking last year’s outfield was going to be great offensively. It didn’t happen and this year it sucks even more. Jay is the best outfield bat on the team and I was worried he’d get too much playing time. (dying laughing)
dmick89Quote Reply
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
I’m sure the Brewers owner is a little relieved he didn’t feel as though he had to add to the team this year. The Brewers are better off in the long run doing what they did this deadline.
dmick89Quote Reply
Rizzo the Rat,
(dying laughing)
Berselius is too lazy to loginQuote Reply
Berselius is too lazy to login,
Of course, the Brewers really would be getting their couch from American TV, assuming it still exists.
Berselius is too lazy to loginQuote Reply
Oof.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
*arrested development voice* “It didn’t”
EdwinQuote Reply
dmick89,
Their GM is pretty good. He’s doing the types of moves that a team like the Brewers should be doing. Living in Milwaukee, I’ve actually started to root for the Brewers a bit. It’s nice to see the hometown team do well.
EdwinQuote Reply
Edwin,
Yeah he’s good, but I was thinking about the early rumors that the Brewers would go hard after Gray, which made no sense to me. They played above their talent level and even if they did win the division, they’d have a very difficult time getting past the first round. The team would rather be in first, but I’ll bet there was a little bit of relief that the Cubs came back so quickly and took it from them. I think it made their front office stick with what they had been doing for the last few years, which gives them a much better shot in the future.
dmick89Quote Reply
My only thing about the Brewers is that the thing they needed sorely (pitching) was the most gettable thing on the market, and the price wasn’t that large. It would have been really reasonable for them to get Jaime Garcia and Tony Cingrani for minor prospects and immediately improve, albeit marginally. They might not win the division, but they are still live for it, and the wild card isn’t that distant either.
mylesQuote Reply
myles,
Yeah, I thought there were certainly some depth arms that they could have added for cheap, to at least keep them in the race in case of a Cubs implosion. I’m surprised they didn’t pull the trigger on Dan Straily.
I think the Brewers could have a pretty interesting offseason, and have a chance to really set themselves up well for the future. If they really wanted to invest in the farm and go for the long term, they could bring in quite a haul if they make Thames, Shaw, or Santana available. They seem to have a decent amount of controllable MLB assets to flip.
EdwinQuote Reply
Bummer. My family has always referred to that place as “Crazy TV”, due to a store that was in the same location on the Madison beltline back in the 70s.
Berselius is too lazy to loginQuote Reply
Speaking of NL Central teams and the deadline, it was nice to see the Cardinals do exactly nothing.
Berselius is too lazy to loginQuote Reply
Berselius is too lazy to login,
I would like to see what a Cardinals rebuild would look like.
Rice in limboQuote Reply
Grimm, Caratini —–> Iowa
dmick89Quote Reply
Rice in limbo,
I don’t expect I’ll see one any time soon and if it happens they’ll somehow do a complete rebuild in the span of a couple months. I think I’d rather they just stick around .500. (dying laughing)
dmick89Quote Reply
To-day’s base ball squadron
RF Zobrist
3B Bryant
1B Rizzo
C Contreras
CF Almora
SS Russell
2B Baez
LF Happ
P Lester
Two guesses at the handed-ness of the Dbacks pitcher
Berselius is too lazy to loginQuote Reply
Exactly—a rebuild would probably be like the Yankees. They will call up some unheralded eleventieth round pick and it’ll be Albert Pujols all over again. Keep it .500, Matheny. Keep it .500.
ceruleanQuote Reply
Switch?
Both?
I lose.
ceruleanQuote Reply
cerulean,
I think there’s only one person older than three who would get that wrong and he’s the fucking president.
dmick89Quote Reply
You could eliminate the wrong answer and he’d still have to phone a friend to get it right.
dmick89Quote Reply
No—his answer wouldn’t even be wrong. What he says contains no truth value. Chances are it would being with *Crooked Hillary* or *The failing NYTimes*.
If it was a scantron, he’d fill in F for everything, then try to fire the person administrating the test.
ceruleanQuote Reply
dmick89,
(dying laughing), love the new avatar.
Berselius is too lazy to loginQuote Reply
I still don’t know if that would work – didn’t Stalin stamp out left-handedness from the Russian population a while back?
Berselius is too lazy to loginQuote Reply
Being, begin—what’s the difference? They’re just words. They don’t mean anything.
ceruleanQuote Reply
The Cubs are heading into a pretty rough patch of the schedule.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
True, but they do get the Giants sandwiched in there. After next weekend’s series against the dbacks they don’t play a team with a winning record until Sep 8.
Berselius is too lazy to loginQuote Reply
Berselius is too lazy to login,
Actually, after the series in AZ the only games they play against a team currently with a winning record is six games against the Brewers in September.
Berselius is too lazy to loginQuote Reply
Thanks. I found the Dead image with some transparency to put another image so it had to be Sosa. I was going to use one with him carrying the flag around the bases, but I couldn’t find one that was close enough that was also high resolution.
dmick89Quote Reply
Scherzer came out after throwing one inning (he had just hit his first career home run, too).
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
That AB by Rizzo was Baez-esque.
dmick89Quote Reply
Corbin looks like a great LOOGY.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Almora! Also, what was Willson thinking?
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Almora!!!
dmick89Quote Reply
Well, Alby!
ceruleanQuote Reply
3-0 if Willson was thinking on the bases.
dmick89Quote Reply
Had to be greedy, didn’t you, Willie?
ceruleanQuote Reply
I’m surprised Baez only struck out 11 times on the road trip. Seemed like 30.
dmick89Quote Reply
Pitch better, Jon.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
A lot of pitches for Lester.
dmick89Quote Reply
With this bullpen, I’m fine with relatively short outings.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Stop. Walking. People.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Stop nibbling. This is Jeff freaking Mathis!
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Don’t walk the goddamn pitcher!
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
That was excruciating. I hope he finds his command soon.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Happ!!!
dmick89Quote Reply
Happ! Lester! Rizzo!
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Lester!!!!!!!!!
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
That was unexpected.
dmick89Quote Reply
LESTER!!!!
(dying laughing)
(dying laughing)
(dying laughing)
Coomer has been killing it!!!
(He called Rizzo’s and Lester’s.)
ceruleanQuote Reply
dmick89,
I wasn’t expecting Lester’s first home run to be to the opposite field against a southpaw.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Bullpen, please.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Ever since Lester’s first hit he has been pretty good at the plate, honestly.
MylesQuote Reply
Cubs offense doing okay today.
berseliusQuote Reply
That Carrasco-Sale pitchers’ duel didn’t go quite as expected.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Fortunately, great bullpen arms like Miller, Allen and Kimbrel came in to stop the bleeding.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
(dying laughing)
ceruleanQuote Reply
Monty for the save?
BVSQuote Reply
Descalso is the best P of the night for AZ. But those were 75mph fastballs, not change ups, right?
BVSQuote Reply
Ugh. They couldn’t even reach base against a position player pitching. This team can’t score worth a damn.
ceruleanQuote Reply
Fuck you, ump. Go home.
ceruleanQuote Reply
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Tough save by Montgomery.
Rice in limboQuote Reply
Rice in limbo,
I never doubted him for a second.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
http://obstructedview.net/cubs-16-diamondbacks-4/
berseliusQuote Reply