Cubby-Blue

Weekend's overall score: Yankees 28 Cubs 5.

What was it like watching the Cubs get slaughtered by the Yankees this weekend?

Like this.
Right now, there are of course injuries especially to the starting staff. 
But in addition to that, the kids who've done well, didn't.
And that's either because they had bad games or the Yankees just figured them out.
Swarmer's first couple starts were AMAZING! How can a guy with that pedigree and only 2 pitches be wily enough to have 2 really good starts in a row to begin his career in the Bigs?
But I can't remember watching a guy get sliced apart in sort of slow motion over so many innings with all the solo homers... ever.
Oh.
That's because it tied a record from 1932 for giving up 6 solomers.
Even I'm not that old.
Why did Ross leave him in for soooo long?
Well, he shot most of his bullpen bullets in Friday's game, and Swarmer just had to... be a sacrifice.
I keep thinking that with those 2 pitches - a fastball and his slider that has versions... don't you think he'd have success in the bullpen?
But, you know, circumstances.
Sunday's game was.. ahhh never mind.
So Rizzo got to beat the Cubs brains out, and tonight if Yu Darvish does the same, well the Cubs haven't been this low in a looong time.
And if that isn't bad enough, there's gonna be a Sriracha shortage!

NOOOOOOOOOO!

About 15 of the next 77 or so hours will be Cubs vs Cards.

 

This schedule is nuts!
During the next 77-odd hours, 15 of them will feature the Cubs playing the Cardinals.
5 games (about 15 hours) in 4 days (96 hours minus today's 19 hours waiting til 7PM game time).
I always screw up math but whatever.
Also, 11 year old me can't help doing the Cardinals pooping on their logo.

How about Christopher Morel?
I don't believe this is like a Tuffy Rhodes thing, where Morel will start off on fire and flame out.
Rhodes hit those 3 homers on Opening Day in '96, and then... honestly I can't remember BUT... Morel feels real and a godsend.
That scene last night..
Bottom 10th with Jason Heyward at third, one out and Morel down 2 strikes... He looks over his shoulder at Willson Contreras who takes an exaggerated deep breath to remind Morel to just  b r e a t h e.
Which Morel does. 
Then he delivers with the fly ball to Christian Yelich, who's got something hitchy going on with his arm because it wasn't even close.
Heyward tags and scores, Cubs win 4-3.

AND NOW IT'S SO GREAT TO GO INTO THIS CARDINALS SERIES WITH A LITTLE MOMENTUM!

Tonight at 7:05 we'll get to see two crazy-talented kids - our Keegan Thompson and the Cards' Matthew Liberatore.
Tomorrow's Stroman and then we'll see Swarmer and Steele and somebody else by Sunday, and by then, I'm gonna be needing some caffeine.

Go Cubs.

Also I forgot the double header will be 7-inning games so they won't be the 3 hr 5 min MLB average so.. sue me.

Patrick Wisdom with the clutch home run!

Maybe I should be happy I still have hair rather than complain about more of it turning gray.
We were visiting up in Wisco, and spent half of game 1 of the Memorial Day Cub/Brewer doubleheader at a little bar on a lake. 
Then watched game 2 while grilling filets from a store called Sausage Plus.
Both games... you know... it's not the Three Stooges, but more like watching a juggler as somebody off screen keeps tossing in flaming bowling pins. 
I was just sick of the losses where afterwards you say, "Yeah but a pretty good game."
I needed the kind of joy one can only experience when Patrick Wisdom hits a clutch rocket out the park in the bottom of the 8th and the Cubs actually get a W.
Seriously, I was all ready to say the "pretty good game" thing again, because it was. 
Lots of really tough plays (or misplays haha Milwaukee) in the outfield, and trading the momentum back and forth. 
And finally thanks to Wisdom, the late lead and David Robinson saving it.
Ahhhhhh.
That's better.
So far this year the Brewers have 5 wins to the Cubs 4 - so they can tie it with a win tonight, and then an insane 5 games in 4 days vs the Cardinals. 
The Cards will start with Matthew Liberatore and Miles Mikolas while the Cubs will start with Tobe Determined. 
The bullpen has been overall very good all season, but this stretch has been and continues to be beyond brutal. 
Sox/Brewers/Cardinals... eleven games in the same nine days that starters Wade Miley and Drew Smyly disappear (along with Seiya Suzuki and Jonathan Villar). 
They already brought up Matt Swarmer who did well in his start the other day, but Rossy already said that top pitching prospect Caleb Kilian is not on the table yet.
The doubleheader extra man rule means on Saturday the Cubs can pick a 27th player, surely a pitcher, from the 40 man but...
if I were a betting man I'd say that some time in the next 5 days we'll see a position player pitching for the home team.
I'll also say I CAN'T WAIT FOR CUBS CARDINAL ACTION AT WRIGLEY FIELD!
But I'm breaking the don't look ahead rule, and today the biggest wish is a vintage Kyle Hendricks performance that goes deep into the game. 
Fingers crossed and Go Cubs!

Last thing.
I can't really talk about this yet, but there's going to be a new show on Marquee called "Is This Seat Taken?"
It's kind of a talk show including a fan, a celeb, a former Cub and current Cub, created by my old group creative director Dave Merhar. 
He called out of the blue and asked if I could work on it, so... as of now this watercolor is the "logo" for it:

And they say they'll also use some of my paintings in the show itself.
Needless to say I'm very excited.
I went to the filming of the first couple episodes and... well, I'll tell you more about it later.
If you're on FaceBook, you can follow here and maybe get to sign up to be in the live audience at the next filming.

The Cubs are doing what they're supposed to be doing vs the Pirates.

Game 1 vs the Pirates was a complete laugher - 9-0 shutout including Willson Contreras getting a salami as his 100th home run.
Wade Miley... he's been around and we've all seen him pitch for the Reds vs the Cubs, right?
Do you remember him as an uncommonly fast worker?
I don't.
I'd never seen him work as fast as he was working.
I was laughing at all the timeouts and step outs the Bucs were doing at the plate. 
7 innings, 1 hit, no runs no walks... the first 4 innings were 1-2-3 and he didn't give up the single until 2 out in the 5th. 
The game would have been FLYING except for the Cubs scoring 8 in the first.

I was at the game when the Cubs creamed the Pirates 21-0, but after that game the Cubs went into that funk. 
They went 6-12 during that stretch til the Pirates came to town Monday.
So I was worried about what would happen after the 9-0 laugher, and instead... well it's just the Pirates but these 2 games have made summer better in lots of ways.
First is Keegan Thompson.
5 innings, 4 hits, no runs.
He could obviously start, but the rotation... it's been better but still it's messy (and Covid hasn't helped with Stroman disappearing , although he could be back any minute).
Thompson is Mike Montgomery with what looks like better stuff and way less of that "I deserve to be a starter" head that Montgomery had.
I love this kid.
And THEN in the 6th, Norris comes in for a couple pitches and leaves with an Achilles thing.
In comes Brandon Hughes for his debut in The Bigs, and he strikes out 5 in his 1.2 innings.
He's the first guy to do that in the modern era.
He's also a 16th round pick by the Cubs, as an outfielder.
Read this from the Des Moines Register, it's a great story. 
But the point is... it's a pitcher the Cubs brought up, and it's crazy exciting because it's the kind of thing we see the Cardinals do all the time.
Couple years ago I'm at Busch with high school buddies watching the Cubs lose as Jose Quintana gives up 6 runs in the first inning.
Not a fun game, but Miles Mikolas gives up a couple and just when I think the Cubs might have some momentum, the Cards bring in a kid named Dakota Hudson for his Big League debut.
I remember saying something like, "Dakota Hudson? Sounds like a movie star, not a pitcher."
He strikes out 2 and his inning is over in a blink.
I HATE WHEN THE CARDINALS DO THAT STUFF, which is why Hughes performance gave me goosebumps.
And the other prospect making his B.L. debut, 22 year old Christopher Morel, he hits one out in his first at bat.

This game was just fantastic.

Tonight the Cubs have their first chance for a 2022 sweep. 
Please Baseball Gods, let this post not be a jinx.

Go Cubs. 

Last thing is just a quick story.
My wife and I go to one of those big, privately owned garden centers, supposed to be awesome.
And it is.
I mostly stand next to our gigantic metal push cart while she's picking out plants and dragging them over to me.
When we're checking out, the cashier sees that one of the plants has some other kind of plant growing in the pot and she says this:

I think she's joking, so I say, "SWEET!"
Had no idea she was so pissed til she dagger-eyed me.
I said to my wife, "Uh... I'll go get the car."