OSS: Kyle Hendricks threw a Maddux in my heart
Three up
- Kyle Hendricks had his best start of the season, going the distance with seven strikeouts, no walks and six baserunners. He probably should have got the Maddux, but some miscommunication between Heyward and Zobrist in the ninth turned a lazy pop fly into a leadoff double for the Phils. Hendricks now has a 2.93 ERA and 2.74 FIP to go along with a 20.3% strikeout rate and 6.4% walk rate on the season. There was some reason to doubt that he would even get a rotation spot going into the year, but now he is nine starts into the year with stats even better than last year's. Perceptions are starting to shift and maybe people will stop treating him as the prototypical fifth starter that you're more than happy to skip when there are off days.
- Jason Heyward had a great day at the plate, doubling in his first two PAs. The first one was kind of bloop-y, but the second was a laser beam that got to the wall in no time at all.
- Ben Zobrist is so hot that the Iranian nuclear program monitors might want to check his bat to see if he has a miniaturized thermonuclear device inside. He picked up two more hits today, including a double that scored Heyward in the first.
Three down
- The only big complaint was the Heyward/Zobrist ball lost in the sun/miscomunication in the ninth that blew the shutout. They're both new to the Cubs, and Maddon mentioned it as a teachable moment in his postgame presser. Luckily the Cubs already had a big lead, 4-0 might as well be 40-0 against the Phillies offense. SouvenirCity on the twitters wondered if something like that had ever happened in a no-hitter, and I imagined the late Milt Pappas going supernova on the mound if that instead of Bruce Froemming had happened.
- Hendricks was thrown out at home to end the second, in what was probably a bad send. Luckily he did not try to slide or anything, and may have had an outside chance at being safe it the call was reviewed.
-
Striking out on a wild pitch is probably the best way for Ryan Howard to drive in a run from third nowadays.
— Ari (@AriJordan_) May 28, 2016
Next up: The Cubs go for the sweep tomorrow afternoon with Hammel on the mound vs Vince Velasquez. 1:20 PM CT.
Comments
3. Only one homerun on a day like today. And they didn’t score at least seven runs more than the Phils to push their run differential past +130.
ceruleanQuote Reply
Omg that Ryan Howard comment
JoshQuote Reply
Also, ho-hitter?
I don’t think that fits OV’s anti-domestic-violence policy.
[Note: Login bug. Commie creds.]
ceruleanQuote Reply
cerulean,
(dying laughing), sounds like it is time to increase my browser font size, and buy David Ross’s scooter while I am at it.
berseliusQuote Reply
538 is back up to 105 wins. If I recall, 107 was thier high water mark.
Also, isn’t it great that the sim runs every single time a game finishes. The wait-for-stats-to-update is starting to feel more and more like waiting for the newspaper to see the standings.
ceruleanQuote Reply
*their
ceruleanQuote Reply
cerulean,
The other day I looked after the game and they gave the Cubs a loss a the Cardinals a win. I had to open At Bat to make sure I had witnessed the Cubs winning. 538 had it fixed a few hours later. They must do the updating by hand. That’s a lot of work.
dmick89Quote Reply
berselius,
Since most of seeing has to do with the brain and not the eyes, it’s probably not the eyesight that’s the problem. Are you sure you can be trusted at the tiller of a scooter? (dying laughing)
ceruleanQuote Reply
White Sox just blew a six run lead in the ninth
berseliusQuote Reply
dmick89,
I would think somebody would IFTTT that shit.
ceruleanQuote Reply
berselius,
Maybe Quintana will be available after all. ?
ceruleanQuote Reply
That was rough. Ball 3 was strike 3. Tough game, Sox fans. Ugh.
ceruleanQuote Reply
Royals, White Sox, and Indians in a temporary deadlock for first in the AL Central. Indians up 7–0 against the O’s.
ceruleanQuote Reply
It wasn’t a bad send unless you have a problem with Hendricks exerting himself too much (which didn’t seem to be an issue given how well he continued to pitch). With two outs, you should be very aggressive in trying to score. I think the break-even point is around 33%, since you almost need the next batter to get a hit otherwise.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Now 7–1. Cleveland will surely blow this lead. In the ninth.
ceruleanQuote Reply
The BoSox also blew a four run lead in the eighth, then took the lead in the top of the ninth before the Jays walked it off. Not a good day for Sox fans.
Good thing the Cubs were only ever known as the White Stockings.
ceruleanQuote Reply
Correction: with Heyward on second, the BE comes to 42%, I think.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
I think managers are probably too timid with two-out sends at third generally. They’re too afraid of looking bad if the runner gets caught. It looks better for them if the next batter fails to drive the runner in instead.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Only issue I have with that send is that there was going to be a play and with the pitcher running, I’d rather not risk injury.
dmick89Quote Reply
I wrote a little ditty to sim 1000 divsions 1000 times and settled on 88 wins. The highest win total I found was 116. (dying laughing)
ceruleanQuote Reply
Because computers are fast, I didn’t go beyond line 4 of Pascal’s Triangle. Too much code.
ceruleanQuote Reply
A guard for the NO Pelicans broke into an apartment where he thought his girlfriend was cheating on him. It was the wrong apartment. He was shot dead.
Three takeaways:
Front doors are shoddy.
Catching your suspected cheating lover in the act is just stupid.
Guns are usually irreversible.
Awful.
ceruleanQuote Reply
Phillies haven’t scored 4 runs in a single inning all season, in over 500 chances. 4-0 IS practically as good as 40-0 versus them.
Also, if that ball had dropped in a no hitter, the scorer would be lynched if he didn’t give an error to someone.
MarkQuote Reply
Who would you give the error to? Neither of them was really even that close to the ball and the scorer never gives an error to a fielder in that situation. I think they should. That’s definitely a ball that should be caught by the right fielder. That’s E9 in my opinion and even if it was at the halfway point between where it should have been made by Zobrist or Heyward, I’m giving an error to someone on that play every single time. However, they don’t and never have.
I know Len and JD like to talk about team errors, but why bother? Errors are mostly a useless statistic anyway. Just assign the error to someone and be done with it. Pick a name out of a hat. Doesn’t matter how they choose to assign it. Someone should get an error on plays like that.
dmick89Quote Reply
A basketball game happened and seemed to have broken the internet.
Rice in limboQuote Reply
Best parking options for going to the game?
JoshQuote Reply
To-day’s base ball squadron
Fowler
Heyward
Bryzzobrist
Montero
Russell
Sczcur
Lackey
berseliusQuote Reply
Velasquez has a K/9 over 10 and a BB/9 below 3. But he’s also a flyball pitcher. It’s gonna be a stressful day for him. How about a nice Wrigley welcome.
ceruleanQuote Reply
May hope is that their game plan is to nibble and the Cubs make him pay. But I can foresee that backfiring because these umps have been awful.
ceruleanQuote Reply
*My
ceruleanQuote Reply
The Chris Sale Show is the MLB.tv free game. Last episode was pretty disappointing.
ceruleanQuote Reply
Umps seem to hate the Cubs’ hitters patience, especially Soler’s. He’s so good at laying off the stuff that’s just off the plate and they don’t like it for some reason.
Also, the wind is apparently blowing out to right today at 16 MPH.
SKQuote Reply
My daddy drives a UFO
SKQuote Reply
The Cubs are going to miss Kershaw in a four-game series. That’s fortuitous.
Also, Hammel’s pitcher adjustment Elo is stil -23 after starting out at about -25 (I think). I assumed it would improve faster than that because he has been pretty good, if a little lucky. I would think 0 would be league average, but I don’t know. The knock on Hammel is his inability to pitch well past 150 innings. We aren’t there yet.
ceruleanQuote Reply
game thread will auto-post at 11 am
dmick89Quote Reply
SK,
Yep. Wunderground has WNW winds at 16 with gusts to 20. Let’s see Heyward and Rizzo get some long ball action. (Today would be a great Schwarber day, alas.)
ceruleanQuote Reply
A day like today, I would have put La Stella at second and Zobrist in left to get another lefty in the lineup. But whatever. Szczur can go the other way.
ceruleanQuote Reply
cerulean,
Velasquez has a rather pronounced observed reverse platoon split. It’s a pretty small sample, but that may have factored into the decision.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Game thread is up: http://obstructedview.net/phillies-cubs-game-thread-5-29-16/
dmick89Quote Reply