Cubs 7, Reds 2 (15 innings)

In Commentary And Analysis by berselius16 Comments

OSS: The Joe Maddon game?

Three up

  1. This was a slog of a game that turned entertaining as it got weirder and weirder in the late innings. Joe Maddon had used all of his position players by the 13th inning, so when he needed to bring in new LHP cannon fodder Joel Peralta to relieve Cahill he had Peralta take Coghlan’s spot in the order (he had just batted) and had Travis Wood take the pitcher’s spot, due up third in the following inning. This put Wood in LF for the following inning, where Maddon mixed and matched Wood with Spencer Patton, who also played some LF. After Hammel pinch hit for Patton with the bases loaded in the fourteenth, he was replaced in LF by Pedro Strop who had to have been the last guy off the bench who could still possibly pitch. Everyone seemed to be rooting for the Reds to hit a ball to one of the three different RPs playing LF, but sadly it was not meant to be. As damning an indictment this is for the Cubs short bench policy, paradoxically games like this force the Cubs to lean even more heavily on a big bullpen since the whole staff is pretty much gassed after a game like this one, and there are still no off days in sight until the ASG. I certainly wouldn’t mind dropping back down to seven after that though.
  2. Aside from the blown save by Rondon, it was a great game by the Johnny Wholestaff. Lester almost made it through eight innings, Justin Grimm looked closer to his old self, and some little leaguer wearing his dad’s uniform Carl Edwards Jr. looked great as well. striking out two in his inning of work.
  3. Baez had the most impressive hit of the the day, a grand slam to CF that put the game out of reach in the 15th, but it was actually less valuable by WPA than Bryant’s seeing eye RBI single two batters earlier. It was nice to have the insurance after how close the whole game was, but a bummer that it put to rest any question as to what would happen if Wood and Patton or Strop continued the LF platoon situation. Could Wood get a save in a game where he had already pitched before the winning pitcher. Could Patton relieve Wood in the 15th and get both a win and a save? Alas, we will never know.

Three down

  1. Rondon blew the save today, but it didn’t seem super implosion-y for some reason. The Cubs would have gotten out of it if Matt Szczur hadn’t made a bad throw when trying to gun down Phillips at home. The Cubs had trotted out their defensive replacements earlier in the inning, but the best replacement probably would have been to bring Russell in at SS, moving Baez to 3b and Bryant to LF. I don’t know that they would have run on Bryant there.
  2. The offense couldn’t get anything going against the historically bad Reds bullpen, who very nearly pulled off nine innings of no-hit ball until Heyward managed to squeeze a hit through with one out in the 15th. The sequencing wyvern (he’s the BABIP dragon’s first cousin once removed) will come back around for the Cubs as the season goes on, but it would be nice to see him/her more often.
  3. Watching the offense scuffle against Blake Wood was especially frustrating. He has a career ~12% walk rate, and it seemed like every batter was swinging away at the first pitch. Travis Wood probably had the best PA against him of all the Cubs hitters, which pretty much sums up the last ten innings or so of this game.

Next up: The will try to sleepwalk into a sweep at 12:45 CT start time. I’m guessing the bullpen will be Pedro Strop and a bunch of position players. Kyle Hendricks faces off with lefty Cody Reed.

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  3. Author
    berselius

    Rice Cube:
    Fyi game starts at 11:35 AM Central because the Eastern Time Zone is weird.

    Dammit, I’m not used to my 10 am meeting interfering with Cubs games (dying laughing)

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  5. dmick89

    Could Wood get a save in a game where he had already pitched before the winning pitcher. Could Patton relieve Wood in the 15th and get both a win and a save? Alas, we will never know.

    Isn’t the save based on the closeness of the game at the time the pitcher comes into the game? That’s my understanding and based on that, neither player would have been eligible for a save.

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  7. EnricoPallazzo

    I’m guessing the bullpen will be Pedro Strop and a bunch of position players.

    out of curiosity, which position players have taken the mound in years past? i can remember doug dascenzo doing it and i feel like mark grace might have pitched a few innings but i’m sure there are a bunch i’m not thinking of…

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  9. EnricoPallazzo

    is there a reason that armando rivero fell off my radar? i remember him getting some hype at various points over the past few seasons but haven’t heard any chatter about him lately despite some pretty decent looking numbers. maybe it’s just me.

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