Cubs 5, Dbacks 1

In Postgame by berselius59 Comments

OSS: Welcome back, Cyle.

Three up:

  1. Kyle Hendricks had by far his best game of the season so far, striking out eleven batters in seven shutout innings. His changeup was working today and he was getting plenty of swings and misses. Over the last three games, Cubs starters have combined for 26 strikeouts and just two walks over 21 shutout innings.
  2. The wind was the real MVP today, inducing some Keystone Kops level defense from the Dbacks as they dealt with a high Kris Bryant blooper that drove in the first two Cubs runs. Rizzo hit a triple that wasn’t so directly wind-aided, but you have to think the OFs were slow off the mark due to the unpredictablity.
  3. The Cubs drew a crapton of walks in this one, if by a crapton you mean nine. They racked up the pitches in the early going and chased the Dbacks starter early, knocking him out in the fourth inning.
  4. Bonus – The Brewers lost, and as an extra bonus Hader threw a ton of pitches before giving up the lead.

Three down:

  1. A rough day for Javy at the plate, as he went 0-5 with three strikeouts, including a strikeout with the bases clogged to end the second inning.
  2. Brad Brach came in to pitch the ninth and promptly gave up three hits, finally breaking the Cubs pitching staff’s scoreless innings streak.
  3. Daniel Descalso had the most negative WPA play of the day, striking out with the bases clogged in the second inning just before of Bryant’s go-ahead ‘double’.

Next up: Yu Darvish takes on Zack Greinke in a 1:20 PM CT start.

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  1. Author
    berselius

    To-day’s base ball squadron

    RF Zobrist
    3B Bryant
    1B Rizzo
    SS Baez
    C Contreras
    CF Heyward
    2B Descalso
    LF War Bear
    P Darvish

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  2. andcounting

    Greinke is an ugly dude, but the Diamondback unis make it even worse. I’ve got to listen to the rest of this on the radio.

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  3. Rizzo the Rat

    SK,

    The bat breaks because he isn’t hitting it well. i.e., the ball isn’t hitting the strongest part of the bat.

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  4. dmick89

    Yelich has 13 home runs already. Which Cubs players end up hitting more than 13 all season? I’m going with Baez, Rizzo, Schwarber and Contreras.

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  5. SK

    Rizzo the Rat,

    As a dumbass who doesn’t understand physics it still seems weird to me that a weak swing at a slow pitch would have that result. Sorry but these useless comments are all I have to say about yesterday’s game.

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  6. andcounting

    SK,

    Slow and weak are relative to the fastest MLB pitches and the mightiest MLB swings. Relative to plain ol’ human physics, a baseball thrown at 80 mph (with rotational velocity and directional velocity added into the mix) hitting anything is going to transfer a lot of force in a very small amount of time. When the object it hits is a heavy wooden club being swung faster than a child could swing it, that’s an incredible amount of energy colliding in opposite directions, certainly enough to break a bat if applied in the right spot.

    The further away the point of contact is from the center of the bat’s mass, the less of the bat’s force will have time to transfer to the baseball. Javy frequently makes contact at the end of the bat (when he tries to pull pitches a foot or so outside) meaning about 10% of the bat is slowed down by the ball while the other 90% is still moving at full speed. Because the swing is slower, the resulting lesser force also takes longer to accelerate the baseball than would a more forceful swing, drawing out the transfer of energy from the ball to the point of contact and down through the handle of the bat. More energy is effectively applied toward bending the bat than when direct contact is made at the center of force.

    I think, maybe. .

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  7. dmick89

    andcounting,

    Probably, but has Bryant even hit 5 home runs since coming off the DL last year? It’s been about 2 months of play at this point and I doubt he’s even hit 5. I hope I’m worrying for nothing, but it sure seems that his shoulder injury took away all of his power.

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  8. Author
    berselius

    To-day’s base ball squadron

    CF Almora
    LF Bryant
    1B Rizzo
    SS Baez
    C Contreras
    3B Bote
    2B Zobrist
    P Chatwood
    RF Zagunis

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  9. dmick89

    Off days by months

    March/April: 6
    May: 3
    June: 1 (seriously)
    July: 4 (not including the ASB that all teams get)
    August: 3
    September: 2

    My guess is that June and September are the worst months for this team and that March/April is the best we’ll see them all season.

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  10. JonKneeV

    I’m surprised this blog didn’t spontaneously combust after Chatwood got through 6 innings on 71 pitches.

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