OSS: Massive rain delay and Len Kasper in the Fox booth isn’t enough to keep the Cubs TWTW down.
Three up
1. Miguel Montero is on fire, homering yet again with a bomb to dead center to give the Cubs an early lead. My lying eyes said he looked pretty good behind the plate too, stealing strikes for an equally heating up Kyle Hendricks.
2. Hendricks was dealing in this game, and the Reds must have been happy to see his day ended by the rain delay. His changeup hung clown shoes on Joey Votto, arguably the toughest hitter to fool in all of baseball. Votto got his own back later with a solo shot against Hendricks, but it was another impressive outing in a string of them and my worries about his slow start to the year have evaporated.
3. Castro and Bryant combined to give the Cubs the walkoff win in the ninth against straightball expert Tony Cingrani. Bryant hit a leadoff double, and two batters later Castro knocked him in for the win. Castro now has a .312 wOBA in the month of June.
Three down
1. Both of the Cubs biggest negative plays came in the eight inning, when they had a rally going in a tie game. Addison Russell doubled to start the inning, then promptly got picked off at second base. Fowler then doubled to take his place (and give extra mental -WPA for a bonus) and a single by Coghlan put runners at first and third with only one out. Rizzo then hit into a double play to end the inning, which dropped the Cubs win chances by 25%
2. I’m shocked they were still playing in that crap, but presumably it must not have been raining for the entire second half of the game. I assumed the game was canceled as the rain delay dragged on and on, but when I flipped the on the TV I was surprised to see the game restarted. I think it was the seventh or the eight, and the rain was still pouring down. I’m just glad no one was injured.
3. Skip Schumaker is still playing professional baseball.