Cubs 7, Pirates 6

In Postgame by berselius75 Comments

OSS: Cubs clinch playoff spot, hang on to a razor-thin half game lead, cause everyone to tear their hair out.

Three up:

  1. The bats finally woke up, courtesy of a first inning opposite field home run by Jason Heyward.
  2. Despite the first inning home run, Quintana had a solid start. He struck out four with no walks in five innings, allowing two solo HRs. Two runs in five innings is pretty much a quality start these days I guess. He was pinch hit for in the bottom of the fifth after only 74 pitches with a five run lead, but the Cubs bullpen is completely reliable so no big deal I guess. What a luxury.
  3. Albert Almora, who has gone from a guy for whom the knives came out when he wasn’t in the lineup earlier in the season to the last guy you want to see off the bench came through with the walkoff in the tenth.

Three down:

  1. By Grabthar’s hammer, this fucking bullpen. No one could throw a strike in today’s admittedly tight zone and the Pirates stormed their way back in the last two innings against Edwards, Cishek, and Wilson. At least Jesse Chavez is good. The Cubs will just need him to pitch 3-4 innings in every playoff game.
  2. Caratini, in the lineup for the ice cold Willson Contreras, went 0-4, including a groundout with one out and Terrence Gore on second base. It was the Cubs biggest negative WPA play of the day. This followed a WTF move of Mike Freeman sac bunting Gore over to second.
  3. The Cubs had the bases clogged with no one out in the third inning, and while they came away with two runs it was on a sac fly and a bases loaded walk. They left some runs on the table that they sure could have used.

Next up: Lester and the Cubs take on the red-hot Trevor Williams at 7:05 PM CT.

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Comments

  1. SK

    I can’t fucking stand that thing Len (and sometimes Pat) does on walk-offs, yelling Cubs win before the ball has even left the infield. Call the fucking play, then announce what it means when the runner crosses the plate. Premature bullshit.

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  2. Ryno

    Smokestack Lightning:
    I don’t think we’re supposed to win the division this year.

    Even the best teams need to catch a few breaks to win championships. It’s not that this year’s Cubs don’t catch breaks, it’s that the breaks work against them (the STL runner falling down and not scoring the tying run AND the Marte “double” going off Rizzo’s glove).

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  3. dmick89

    SK,

    I don’t know, SK. That was fairly obvious it was a base hit and you have Gore at 3rd so as soon as I saw it leave the bat I knew the game was over. There have been some home runs that were obvious that they’ve done it too and I don’t mind it. There’s plenty of times you can be dramatic and wait for it to play out, but if I can tell the outcome at home as soon as it leaves the bat then I guess I’d rather they just tell me.

    Here’s a good example of what irritates me and it’s weird that we’re polar opposites on this. Less than 2 outs, runner at 3rd, ball hit deep in the outfield. There’s no reason to call that play as anything other than Cubs win. As soon as it was hit over the outfielder’s head the game was over and usually you can tell that fairly clearly off the bat.

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  4. Ryno

    So Al Yellon, bcbfan and kerrysotherwifesotherhusband were the most liked possible future names for me if the Cubs miraculously play in the NLDS. Maybe we should settle on AlYellon’sHusband?

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  5. Ryno

    EnricoPallazzo,

    I have no problem with that because of my confidence in my stance, so please understand that I’m not trying to circumvent the shame.

    BCBFanStalkingAlYellon

    As I type that, I realize there’s kind of a built-in horror movie twist… Al Yellon finds the site BCBFansTalkingAlYellon.com as a ratemyteacher-like forum where BCBers discuss how much they love him. He becomes fascinated with the site, checking it daily and interacting with its many patrons. Then one day he realizes that he’s actually visiting BCBFanStalkingAlYellon.com and that all the patrons are really just one person who’s mentally unstable. Then lightning strikes just as a phone rings. It’s the site owner…and the call is coming from inside the house…

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  6. Author
    berselius

    Ryno: As I type that, I realize there’s kind of a built-in horror movie twist… Al Yellon finds the site BCBFansTalkingAlYellon.com as a ratemyteacher-like forum where BCBers discuss how much they love him. He becomes fascinated with the site, checking it daily and interacting with its many patrons. Then one day he realizes that he’s actually visiting BCBFanStalkingAlYellon.com and that all the patrons are really just one person who’s mentally unstable. Then lightning strikes just as a phone rings. It’s the site owner…and the call is coming from inside the house… and the caller directs him to a URL to acknowledge that he has been banned from the site

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  7. Ryno

    berselius,

    Or worse: The caller tells him to check BCB, where he finds inflammatory fanshots about hosting picnics or discussing children’s haircuts that were mistakenly posted as fanposts. As Alvin enters his login credentials, the caller tells him that won’t work and Alvin realizes he has been banned from BCB.

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  8. EnricoPallazzo

    out of curiousity, could russell face jail time? has his wife come out and officially said that she will not be pressing charges? maybe dumb questions but i (fortunately) have no idea how this kind of thing works…

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  9. SK

    dmick89,

    It’s really just a few more seconds I’m asking for here. But that urgent rush to say Cubs win as quickly as possible when the batter hasn’t even finished his swing — it’s like someone trying to cheat, or cutting in front of you in traffic. Just lacking in taste in an otherwise respectable broadcast.

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  10. dmick89

    EnricoPallazzo,

    I have no idea if she’s even talked with the police. If not, there’s nothing to investigate. I think it’s up to her whether or not she goes to the police and then up to the police whether or not to make an arrest.

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  11. Author
    berselius

    To-day’s base ball squadron

    2b Murphy
    RF Zobrist
    1B Rizzo
    SS Baez
    LF Schwarber
    CF Happ
    C Contreras
    P Lester
    3B Bote

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