Cubs 8, Reds 6

In Postgame by berselius140 Comments

OSS: Time to redefine what makes a good Yu Darvish start, I guess.

Three up:

  1. Addison Russell had a three-hit day, including a two run homer in the fourth inning that gave the Cubs their first lead of the day. He also legged out a bunt single in the eighth on what was probably a sac bunt and came around to score an insurance run, which was certainly big given the Cubs bullpen issues of late.
  2. Albert Almora also homered, and I guess I have to admit that he’s actually had a pretty decent month of May after his putrid start to the year. He’s hit .266/.293/.532 despite a .262 BABIP, good for a .342 wOBA and 113 wRC+. With his glove in the mix, that’ll play. Oddly enough he’s been way better against righties than lefties this year (.342 vs .242 wOBA). If he can keep hitting, that’ll play with his glove in CF.
  3. David Bote had yet another late game clutch hit, doubling in the Cubs rally in the eighth inning to give them back the lead.

One¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  1. Yu Darvish pitched into the eighth inning, which is good. Yu Darvish gave up six runs on twelve hits, including three homers, which is bad. The wind was howling out, and at least one of those homers was a wind aided cheapie, which is…good? The frogurt is also cursed.

Three down:

  1. I was in and out of this game, but it sure seemed like Joe sending Darvish out in the 8th was a message to the FO about the bullpen. At least it sounds like Strop will be back soon. Of course even if the Cubs sign Kimbrel today, he probably won’t be able to pitch in a game in like a month. Thanks, CBA/Ownership! All that money you’re saving on Zobrist’s restricted list stint can sure pay for a lot of superpac ads.
  2. KB pulled off the old Theriot Special in the first, getting thrown out at third on a FC.
  3. True to form the bullpen nearly blew it in the eighth and ninth, but got bailed out by the Cubs defense thanks to a caught stealing by Caratini and a double play turned with nobody out in the ninth.

Next up: The Cubs go for the series win before heading down to Houston for a three game set. Having an extra win in your pocket before that would sure be nice.

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Comments

  1. Author
    berselius

    To-day’s base ball squadron

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

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  2. dmick89

    The Cubs will wait to go after Kimbrel until everyone else does and then when they don’t get him they’ll say “we tried.”

    It’s more important to the Rickett’s family that white nationalists get elected.

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  3. Perkins

    andcounting:
    Is restricted list time unpaid?

    Generally it is, though I think teams have the option to pay players. In a case like Zobrist’s, I think not paying him would be a bad look.

    Then again, I think we’ve established that this ownership group gives zero fucks about optics.

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  4. dmick89

    Perkins: In a case like Zobrist’s, I think not paying him would be a bad look.

    Zobrist is well off so I don’t think not paying him would be a bad look. It’s not like he’s a minimum wage earner who has to leave work to deal with his family’s estate. He’s a multi-millionaire who will never have to work in his life once he retires. I’d rather the Cubs pay him than run some super pac ads, but I’d prefer they don’t pay him and apply it to next year’s budget.

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  5. dmick89

    Actually, considering how much people like to hate on how much athletes make, I think it would probably be a worse look if he was getting paid for this time off.

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  6. mcalis2

    Daniel Descalso is still getting regular starts when he is legitimately bad at all facets of the game. He’s like Aaron miles or Jon Jay tho… managers love to put them in the lineup.

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  7. mcalis2

    dmick89,

    I have nothing to base this on: despite the prank war last year I got the feeling that Theo and Jed didn’t think it was funny. Nobody saw 2019 LaStella coming but 2018 version is still better than Aaron Miles 2.0

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  8. Author
    berselius

    dmick89:
    Rizzo the Rat,

    I’d really love to know what the Cubs were thinking when they thought he’d be better than LaStella.

    He looked like one of those vaunted swing change guys like Murphy

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  9. SK

    dmick89,

    I assume concussion – didn’t see him move or test his arm, just looked dazed. But I couldn’t take anymore and turned off the game so not sure if they have said anything about it.

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  10. dmick89

    SK,

    I had the volume down since we have people over. At first I thought shoulder, but then I was pretty sure it was the head. The way he walked off the field so slowly seemed to suggest it wasn’t just the shoulder.

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  11. Smokestack Lightning

    Rizzo the Rat:
    I wish I were as good at anything as Schwarber is at striking out looking.

    I might just be in an especially bad mood, but I’m about to the point I want the Superfriends fired for protecting him at all costs rather than Gleyber Torres.

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  12. dmick89

    Considering the talent in the Cubs bullpen there’s really no reason that Caratini shouldn’t get more appearances as a reliever. He sucks, which is perfect for this team.

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  13. Perkins

    dmick89: Zobrist is well off so I don’t think not paying him would be a bad look. It’s not like he’s a minimum wage earner who has to leave work to deal with his family’s estate. He’s a multi-millionaire who will never have to work in his life once he retires. I’d rather the Cubs pay him than run some super pac ads, but I’d prefer they don’t pay him and apply it to next year’s budget.

    In the Zobrist situation, there are a few variables that make me less apt to agree. He’s a World Series MVP, generally regarded as a good guy, a good but non-superstar player, it sounds like his wife may have cheated on him (at least based on his divorce filing), and he’s white.

    Especially that last one makes me think a lot of the meatball fans who side with ownership over the players will at least be more inclined toward him. But I could be wrong – would certainly not be the first time.

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  14. Perkins

    To day’s base ball squadron:
    Schwarber
    Baez (DH)
    Rizzo
    Contreras
    Adduci (RF)
    Almora
    Descalso
    Russell
    Bote

    Get well soon, KB.

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  15. andcounting

    I really don’t think it’s a huge deal about whether Zobrist gets paid, though his lawyer, his wife, and her lawyer probably all care as much as he does now. I do think it’s worth noting that Juliana filed in Illinois (now a pure no-fault divorce state) and Ben filed in Tennessee, where grounds for divorce can include adultery, cruelty, etc. affecting the terms. Filing in two different ways indicates a showdown. This isn’t likely to be pretty or quickly resolved. Which sucks, mostly because the kids are likely to be exposed to more than their fair share of negativity, and that shit is the worst.

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  16. Perkins

    Remember a couple weeks ago when the Cubs were playing well and Brett said they were starting to have a 2016 vibe? Good times.

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  17. Perkins

    To day’s base ball squadron:
    Schwarber
    Baez (DH)
    Rizzo
    Contreras
    Almora
    Heyward
    Russell
    Descalso
    Bote

    I assume Baez is still dealing with lingering pain in his ankle, because otherwise there’s no reason to take his glove out of the field on consecutive nights.

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  18. Smokestack Lightning

    I loathe Tom Ricketts. Care about your fucking baseball team, man. This shit is about more than winning one World Series.

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  19. WaLi

    Strop pitched last night in Iowa so should be back soon. Also hear that Zobrist may just retire. While that sucks, it may free up some money to pick up Kimbrel?

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  20. BVS

    andcounting,

    Myles,

    As a kid who played in swamps all the time, and now the spouse of a wetland ecologist who regularly ropes me into helping with fieldwork, I think it’s time to change the image of swamps and mires. They are pretty cool places, except when the mosquitoes are bad. Many of them are about the only mostly natural places left on the eastern landscape, since we’ve converted the rest to development, timber plantations, or agriculture.

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  21. WaLi

    WaLi,

    “I am still here. Somewhat in the mire, but I am still here,” Zobrist wrote. “Over these last two weeks I have watched so many of you quietly enter the marshland with me. I can see you, sitting beside me, waist deep in the water and bog. I can feel you, in a silence like art, honoring the most intimate spaces of our pain and heartbreak without shame. I can hear you saying, Let me carry some of that for you.

    Thank you for stepping forward and not back. Thank you for not shutting your eyes. Thank you for holding my heart within yours, even while you do not yet understand exactly what you are holding. Someday I will share my story with you…but not today. Today we breathe in deeply the fragrance of the rushes and reeds, and then, I might need your delicate reminder to breathe out again. Maybe tomorrow we will look up and notice the marsh wren and smile at her song. Maybe the day after that we will laugh at the skittish harvest mouse. But not today.

    Today we Be. Today we softly whisper, “btw, you are Loved.”

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  22. EnricoPallazzo

    WaLi: “I am still here. Somewhat in the mire, but I am still here,” Zobrist wrote. “Over these last two weeks I have watched so many of you quietly enter the marshland with me. I can see you, sitting beside me, waist deep in the water and bog. I can feel you, in a silence like art, honoring the most intimate spaces of our pain and heartbreak without shame. I can hear you saying, Let me carry some of that for you.

    Thank you for stepping forward and not back. Thank you for not shutting your eyes. Thank you for holding my heart within yours, even while you do not yet understand exactly what you are holding. Someday I will share my story with you…but not today. Today we breathe in deeply the fragrance of the rushes and reeds, and then, I might need your delicate reminder to breathe out again. Maybe tomorrow we will look up and notice the marsh wren and smile at her song. Maybe the day after that we will laugh at the skittish harvest mouse. But not today.

    Today we Be. Today we softly whisper, “btw, you are Loved.”

    should have been a fanpost

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  23. andcounting

    myles,

    I hesitate to make light of someone’s divorce at their expense, because I know it’s a difficult time regardless of whose fault anything is. And people going through divorces almost always post things on social media they eventually wish they hadn’t. It’s almost like their phone autocomplete is set to auto-dramatic, auto-cryptic or auto-passive-aggressive. It’s not easy to stay normal or silent through times like that.

    It’s especially difficult to make it through when you have no real friends. Ben has no friends close enough to tell him not to use his wife’s songs for walkup music, and Julianna has no friends close enough to tell her not to let him. She has no friends close enough to tell her not to post at all let alone stream-of-consciousness reject Hallmark prosetry on social media.

    My wish for both of them is true friendship and the wherewithal to accept and appreciate it.

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  24. BVS

    I noticed right after the foul ball and then when they replayed Almora talking to the security guard between innings that Heyward was right there helping out. Seems like he the calming voice in the turmoil again.

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  25. Rizzo the Rat

    Also, why is everyone here treating the well-publicized Josh Hamilton incident like some kind of mystery? Has Google stopped existing?

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  26. Perkins

    One of three was probably the best the Cubs could have hoped for in Houston. Too bad they dropped two to the mighty Reds, though.

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  27. Perkins

    dmick89,

    I expected they’d lose to Cole, but they probably should have taken yesterday’s game.

    If only there had been a solution to the easily foreseeable bullpen issues the Cubs would have.

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  28. Author
    berselius

    Apparently Carlos Correa got a broken rib while getting a massage. I guess that’s the new “I was washing my truck”

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  29. andcounting

    berselius:
    Apparently Carlos Correa got a broken rib while getting a massage. I guess that’s the new “I was washing my truck”

    I think that takes it to “Someone else was washing my truck.”

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  30. dmick89

    Rizzo the Rat,

    Just seems like they’ve had every other day off this season. They’ve already used half or more than half of their off days, haven’t they? I think they reached half at around 40 games, which is ridiculous.

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  31. BVS

    So on this off day for the Cubs, I’m watching the national spelling bee. It’s incredible. The kids have broken the dictionary.

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