Cubby-Blue

A Rizzo homer, Alzolay excellence, a loss and a playoff spot.

OMG the PIRATES?
Really?
The Cubs lost 2-3 to the Pirates on a walkoff home run by Jacob Stallings in the bottom of the 9th off Cub reliever Andrew Chafin. 
It was kind of a gut punch as it came an inning after Anthony Rizzo hit a homer, an actual home run, the hit we hadn't seen in what seemed like months.
Such a sweet, clutch, 2-run shot, and it tied the game at 2 and you just thought okay, pull this one out and maybe that homer logjam got busted up some.
SO much happiness in the dugout - it felt like momentum or something.
And on a bullpen day where Adbert Alzolay looked like... well he didn't look like the guy we'd all seen so far.
He looked like a what you'd call a big league pitcher.
He had command.
He had 7 Ks in 4 innings. 
Of 1-run ball.
Quintana (nobody thought he was really "starting"), Alzolay, Ryan, Tepera, and then the 2nd appearance of former AZ reliever Chafin.
Oh well.
Move on and see what happens.
Oh yeah, they clinched a playoff spot, too.
I gotta run, the painting isn't finished and I'll update it later today when it is.
Go Cubs.

What the heck is going on, Cubs?

Man, this season can't get any weirder.
60 game sprint, and we're down to the last week - a 4-game series against the awful Pirates, then the White Sox for the final 3 and all the games are away.
This is when you'd think the Cubs would be fine-tuning... figuring out what the roster will be once the playoffs start, who's replacing who in the bullpen, stuff like that.
Instead, there's some kind of odd hiccup.
David Ross pulls Kyle Schwarber after he misplayed the Twins' Jake Cave's double into a triple.
Ross prefers to keep his reasoning between the two, but also says that Schwarber always hustles.
Kyle spoke up...
He says he shouldn't have misplayed the ball, that he put Darvish in a bad place, and he'll learn from it and move on.
Huh?
Here's Jordan Bastain's original article on Cubs.com. 
Here's Brett Taylor's take at Bleacher Nation, where he just thinks there's something else going on... maybe Ross just trying to shake up Schwarber and/or the team.
From that artricle: "Isn’t it possible that Ross knows Schwarber so well that he wanted to take this opportunity to give him a kick in the pants because Ross thinks that might have a chance of shaking something loose in Schwarber over the final week and into the postseason?"
Maybe that's it, but man what a head scratcher.
I mean... this year's team is a headscratcher.

The big problem to overcome was the bullpen, right?
Instead, it's literally every core superstar just forgetting how to hit.
My buddy Oif texted me:
"Still amazed they ever win a game. Bryant... .197/.285/.303 + 2 homers. Rizzo... .212/.332/.386, Baez... .205/.242/.364, Schwarber... .190/.306/.393."

Okay so maybe Ross's actions do make a little sense?

And maybe we get to see the Schwarber who hit the salami in Cinci again.

Remember that?
Cubs 10, Reds 1?
Seems like it happened in May, but it was actually just 3 weeks ago.

Okay, besides David Ross's attempt, the Pittsburgh Pirates can surely help wake the bats, so...
Go Cubs.

Cubs 1, Twins nothin'. Hendricks has the usual.

OMG KYLE HENDRICKS IS SO GOOD!
WE could use a little more action from the bats, please.
I'm so sorry, no time to write, but...
This is as good a 5-game winning streak with as much CRAZY EXCITEMENT as any Cub Fan could wish for. 
ENJOY IT!!
If we had an hour, there's only about 10 minutes of baseball season left.
Go Cubs!

Jason Heyward's arm reminds one of another Cub right fielder.

Please tell me you were watching last night when Jason Heyward caught Jose Ramirez's fly ball, loaded it into his slingshot, and nailed Francisco Lindor at the plate.
There's just no greater play than at the plate.
Yeah it used to be exciting when the runner could just blow up the catcher, but it's better now without. 
Victor Caratini played it perfectly and clearly tagged Lindor out. 
But the thing with J-Hey is, we never get to see these plays because nobody runs on him.
Just like nobody would ever run on Andre Dawson.
(Sometimes I want to call Heyward a different version of his nickname: J-Hawk.)
Anyway, in a game with lots of big plays (El Mago's fabulous run around the bases, my GOD!), J-Hey's throw is the one that'll stick in my brain.
It was a big moment.
Top of the 3rd with Darvish on the mound, and he'd given up 2 doubles and a bunt single compounded with a Bryant error.
Cleveland had scored twice, taken the lead, and Lindor was standing on 3rd with one out.
Ramirez did his job and hit what shoulda been a sac fly, only he hit it to Heyward.
I swear Len said something like, "This should be fun."
HAHAHAHAHA!
Was it ever. 
Bummer in the 9th when Jeremy Jeffress gave up a 2-run homer to Lindor to erase a 2-run lead. 
But the Cubs scored in the bottom on a really bad bases loaded pitch from a guy named Nick Wittgren that hit pinch hitter Cameron Maybin center mass. 
Wittgren had just hit Willson Contreras and Willie threw his bat and there was definitely a dangerous vibe in the air, not unexpected with Contreras.
Bryant was on third after Rizzo's single, so maybe Wittgren just wanted to load 'em up because there was one out, hope for the double play so you're thinking there's a waaaay outside chance Wittgren hit Contreras on purpose.
But naaah.
Guy just lost control and you know, so good to not have to trot another Cub pitcher out there in extras. 
Cubs 6 Indians 5.
Tonight Lester's back with an opportunity for a couple of the Good Lesteresque starts in a row. 
The Indians'll pitch 25 year old Aaron Civale - he was 3-4 last year with a 2.34 ERA, but I don't believe the Cubs have ever seen him.
I've got ribs smokin' on the grill, and they'll be ready right about 7 so... you know what I'll be doing.
Go Cubs.

PS: There's been something wrong with my blog provider for like weeks, and I apologize that you can't comment. Fix coming...

Last thing, this was the illustration back from when Andre was inducted into the Hall:

Hey it's YU-SDAY NIGHT BASEBALL tonight at 7:15!

Well after the last couple crayzeecool/unexpected games, it's so nice to look forward to a Yu Darvish start, isn't it?
At least in your mind you know to expect excellence, because Darvish has delivered all season ("season" is so weird) long.
He leads all baseball in wins with 7 (tied with Shane Bieber and Zach Davies), and currently number 4 in all baseball with his 1.77 ERA (SO bizarre that the top 6 ERAs are under 2.00).
Plus he's just so entertaining with his arsenal of pitches - if I were announcing I'd probably say "breaking ball" all game long.

We're getting close to the end of the regular season.
I know because I'm seeing things like this tweet from Bleacher Nation talking about if the season ended today, here's the standings and who would play who in the Wild Card.
Here's a graphic from that tweet:

And in addition to playing in a pandemic, I just read this in a Sports Illustrated article: "One more wrinkle this year that will make this postseason even more unpredictable: MLB and the players association are close to an agreement on no off days in the first-round series (up to three straight games), Division Series (five straight) and League Championship Series (seven straight). The World Series would retain its usual two off days (after Games 2 and 5)."

There won't be any travel - all Wildcard games will be played at the top seed's ballpark.
Like, if it happens as predicted above, the Cubs/Phillies series would be played at Wrigley. 
But no days off?
Sounds like the team with the most (and most talented) arms will have a leg up.
And actually, at the start of this thing there'll be 16 teams. 
So... based on pitching depth, if one were a betting person, it might be fun to place multiple bets at once.
That's called a "parlay bet", and there is a thing called a "parlay calculator" that can help you figure it out.
We've all seen lately that the Cubs' pen has really come on, and the Cubs' pen plus Darvish/Hendricks in a 3-game series?
One would assume the Cubs go at least past round one.
Hmmm...

But WAIT A MINUTE... I'm getting way ahead of everything including tonight.
First let's watch YU-SDAY NIGHT BASEBALL and hope for the W.
Go Cubs.

Alec Mills and his incredible NO NO!

For the second time in two nights, we got to see something completely unexpected!
Like a unicorn, or Theo Epstein in a Starbucks.
First the J Hey Comeback-Jack, and then even more out there... a no hitter from Alec Mills.
I'll be honest.
I had stuff to do, plus the Bears came on first.
I'm new to streaming, and on Hulu it takes me about 5 minutes to switch from the Bears game to the Cubs game.
Pain in the ass.
So I watch the Bears first half. 
Terrible.
Switch to see the Cubs score 5 in the 4th, and I'm thinking hey, this game is in the bag.
So I switch back to the Bears and now I'm doing this other project while half watching.
The Bears have the improbable and even exciting finish (and the Lions end up handing the W to the Bears).
I switch to the Cubs but now I'm really concentrating on the project and then I gotta get ready for a socially distanced BBQ.
I go take a shower, get out and I've got 5 texts that all say ambiguous things like "FANTASTIC!", "IMPOSSIBLE", "WOW"... 
I think they're all talking about the Bears comeback.
It's not til we're driving that I hear Mills tossed the no no.
UNBELIEVABLE!!!
Okay so I'm a dolt, but we all know that.
And by now you also know Mills's crazy story to even get to the bigs, and then... history.
Baseball is so cool, isn't it?
You do not need to be freakishly big or tall or fast or anything, you just have to be good at baseball.
I LOVE that he got to be quoted saying, "I'm just proud to be that person that can tell you to never give up. Never stop playing. Never let people tell you what you can and can't do and just keep persevering."
Yeah that's kinda corny and you've heard it before, but coming from him it's TOTALLY moving.
Even the NY Times writes about it.
Mills is Player of the Week. 
Fairy Tale stuff.
And if you just think a little bit about where this season could possibly go... he may have opportunities that you can't say out loud.
Not yet.

Okay the Cub bats have their work cut out for them vs Cleveland pitching.
But it's Yu-sday Night Baseball tomorrow at Wrigley @ 7:15, so the Cleveland bats have a bit of a problem as well.

Meanwhile, the Cardinals have like 15 games in 4 days or something.

Go Cubs.