Cubby-Blue

Dexter Fowler's view of Jeff Samardzija's home run.

Jeff Samardzija had a pretty awesome night last night.
Dexter Fowler not so much.

Samardzija gave up 2 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks in 8 full innings, but the best part about that was the 8 innings.
Because that was only 108 pitches.
The other best part was the 2-run dinger he hit off Jon Garland.
What a performance, and Dexter Fowler was there to watch it all as the Cubs beat the Rockies 6-3.

Nice game, Cubs take their second series in a row and get a day off.

In fact, it was a nice night all around.
The Hawks smoked the Detroit Red Wings, and the Bulls finally get to end their odd, overachieving, yet polarizing season.

Next up for the Cubs?
The Mets.
Yes.
Go Cubs.



 

"Villanueva picked a bad time for that performance," said Garza's beard.

Funny how these things work themselves out sometimes.
Matt Garza seems to be better.
They say his last minor league tuneup could be Thursday.
And last night Carlos Villanueva went 5 innings, gave up 12 hits, 2 homers and 7 earned runs.
It's a shame because he's been so good.
But he's the guy with the most bullpen experience, and Travis Wood is still going strong so and while Dale Sveum says he could go with a 6-man rotation I think...why?
So...looks like bullpen for Carlos.

Cubs lost a rotten one last night 9-4, and it wasn't even as close as that - it was 1-7 through 7.
And on such a gorgeous night.
Well, maybe Mr. Shark can shut down the Rockies tonight and the Cubs win 2 series in a row.
The Brewers have been really awful lately, winning just 2 of their last 10, and both the Cubs and Brew Crew have 16 wins...
Be kinda cool to not be in last place by the end of the night, right?

Go Cubs!

 

Anthony Rizzo gets contract, joins Cubs' Power Rangers team.

I think you're all aware of this Cubs Power Ranger team, right?
A squad of Crucial Core Cubs that will be signed as youngsters for long term deals, and be the Superheroes who win the World Series in 2015.
Okay maybe 2016.
The other Cubs are of course just the regular Cubs, doing their time in Chicago and waiting to see if they'll be one of the Chosen Ones.

The first Cub Power Ranger to sign was Starlin Castro. $60 mil, 8 years.
Then it was Cuban defector Jorge Soler. $30 mil, 9 years.
Didn't really look like much of a Power Ranger team yet.
But yesterday Anthony Rizzo signed a $41 mil, 7 year contract, becoming Cub Power Ranger #3.

Haven't seen much of Soler since spring (except for the little dustup), but clearly he, Castro and Rizzo have the kinds of superpowers Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer are looking for.

Will Jeff Samardzija be next?
Welington Castillo?
Javier Baez or Albert Almora?
Don't really know.
It'll be interesting to see what happens to the current team in July.
For all the last place stuff going on right now, the front office guys do seem pretty smart.
(Well there's Ed Jackson kind of struggling, but...)
Nate Schierholtz?
Carlos Villanueva?
Luis Valbuena?
These guys are contributing in a way that might garner interest from other teams in the hunt come trading time.
Travis Wood is freaking me out.
What switch got flipped?
The Colorado Rockies went cold vs. the Cardinals, but before that they were kind of on fire.
Wood shut 'em all down and the Cub bats went cray-zee with 14 hits and 9 runs to win 9-1.
Does Travis Wood have what it takes to be a Cub Power Ranger?
And if Rizzo is the first base Power Ranger, where does that leave Dan Vogelbach?
Hmmm.

Well it's sure been an enjoyable stretch lately with our favorite team.
Lets see what happens tonight vs the Rockies again.
And btw, it just turned summer.
Might be a good night to go scalp one...



 

Edwin Jackson is a Winning Columnist now!

Finally.
A win for Edwin Jackson coming in the most unlikely matchup against Stephen Strasburg, who was just having his way with the Cubs until the 5th when Nat 3rd baseman Ryan Zimmerman made a bad throw to first. Wellington Castillo is safe, Barney walks, Jackson hits a double, DeJesus walks, Castro singles, Rizzo singles.
In about a minute the Cubs went from zero to 4 runs, and Stephen Strasburg turns out to be pretty human. 
In fact, he and Jackson now each have 1-5 records.
In fact, Ryan Zimmerman now has seven errors (Starlin Castro 6).

In fact, if Luis Valbuena hadn't tried to stretch his double into a triple, the Cubs would have scored 5 in the 5th and Luis might not be nursing a jammed pinkie (although, he totally had to chance it and go for third there - Strasburg had been way too good).

Fabulous game - it ends up 8-2 Cubs.
Jackson is a winning columnist now, so I made him a little newspaper clipping he can have for his scrapbook.
(They still have papers with columns that look like that somewhere, don't they?)
Today it's Scott Feldman and I'm dying to see if he can match last week's performance.
Go Tony.

Go Cubs!

Bringing out the Luck Shark for Jeff Samardzija

Tonight it's the Cubs vs. the Washington Nationals - good guy Anthony Rizzo vs. bad guy Bryce Harper, low expectations team vs. high expectation teams, Jeff Samardzija vs. Ross Detwiler .
In a way it's also Samardzija vs the Cubs, since either the bats or bullpen have let him down so many times already this season.
Of his last 5 starts, two were no decisions where he left the game tied or with a lead, and 3 were one-run losses.
The last time these two teams met with Samardzija on the mound?
The Adam LaRoche homer?
Nats 2 Cubs 1.
Even I can do that math: another one-run loss.

So you've got Bryce Harper fear, right?
Well, he loves hitting against the Cubs.
So far in his tiny career, here's what he's doing: .462/.533/1.154.
That's only 13 at bats, but um..wow.
Anthony Rizzo, in 25 at bats vs Nats, is doing this: .400/.531/.880.
Not bad. 

But this is kinda shocking.
The Cubs are NL ranked #6 in OPS with a .711, Nats are 13th with a .675.
And that's with Harper's currently #4 ranked 1.012 OPS, so they must have some holes that hopefully we'll get to see in the next couple days.
In the meantime, good luck Shark.