Cubby-Blue

Cubs Hope barely flickering.

When I heard that Anthony Rizzo was in the starting lineup, every bump that could possibly goose goosed.
It was just. so. shocking.
How in the world can a guy come back THAT fast from such a gross looking injury?
Impossible!
But there he was, out there on first base waiting for Kyle Hendricks to throw the first pitch.
The Cardinals would score first, and then Rizzo answered with the home run.
Fairy tale stuff.
But Jack Flaherty, that guy gets better every time we see him, and he went 8 innings with 2 meaningless Cub hits and the Rizzo dinger.
Mostly he made the Cub bats look silly.
And Hendricks wasn't in full on Hendricks mode, giving up 4 runs in 5.1 innings.
The worst, of course, was the extra inning homer Craig Kimbrel gave up to Matt Carpenter.
The run that gave the Cards the win.
Joe brought him in just after the Cubs had completed a fantastic, game-tying rally in the bottom of the 9th, scoring 3 times off Carlos Martinez and Andrew Miller.
For the fairy tale, it was Ben Zobrist with the HUGE double that knocked in 2 runs, Javy Baez pinch ran for him and scored the tying run when Jason Heyward knocked him in.
It was all the right guys for such a great story!
And somebody else could suffer the soul-crushing for a change.
But nope.
We sort of own "soul-crushing" in 2019.

When the camera showed Kimbrel come in, I was ecstatic.
Maybe, just maybe he's all the way back and can take care of business.
He struck out Dexter Fowler, his fastballs were all 95 and he had great movement on the curve.
But Carpenter, who's had a pretty bad year and was only playing because Kolten Wong did something to his hammy in the 5th, hit the first fastball 431 feet into the centerfield bleachers.
You pretty much knew that was it.
In the bottom of the 10th, the Cubs went 1-2-3.
And here we are.
Hope is barely flickering.
They're moving Quintana back (this is good!) and having Alec Mills take the mound today. 
See you at 1:20 and...
Go Cubs.

Jon Lester: how much gas left in the tank?

Just a quick look ahead at the white knuckle ride coming up...
On Thursday, the Cards come to town for a 4-game series and to quote some old horror movie poster, "If your skin don't crawl, it's on too tight."
Right now, the Cubs Magic Number is...WAIT!
Don't do that, man.
There's still this Cubs/Reds game today, the last one of '19, and the Reds have won 10 of 18 so far.
Tyler Mahle is on the mound - over the last 3 years he's 2-1 vs Cubs with a 2.41 ERA in 18.2 innings where he gave up 13 hits, 5 earned runs, 3 of them homers.
This year, however, the Cubs have seen him just once where he lasted 5 innings and gave up the 3 dingers.
So... blah blah lets just say the Cubs are able to generate some offense today. 
The question is how much does Jon Lester have left?
When every game is a playoff game, there's no time for a crap start.
All focus should be on today's game, and Lester's more of a wild card than a certainty.

On Monday, the doorbell rang at like 7:45 AM.
My son showed up from Los Angeles for a surprise visit.
So awesome.
All plans had to be put on hold, but I was going to the game that night with some serious Cub Fans.
Hmmm...
I looked online, and tickets were actually pretty reasonable - $50 for a seat in row 8, section 121.
Ended up taking a party of 3 to meet another party of 4.
Sat with the guys for the first 4 innings, then went over to meet the family and the entire row was empty so... took a seat there for the rest of the game.
SUCH a great night, with red hot Kyle Schwarber hitting a 3-run homer in the first.

And as you know, the Cubs won 8-2.
And as you also know... they lost last night.
If I told you that Yu Darvish went 7 innings and struck out 13 including 8 in a row, you'd think the Cubs won.
But the Reds got the jump on him early and the Cubs couldn't hit Sonny freaking Gray.
It ended up Cubs 2, Reds 4.

Cubs and Cards lose, Brewers and Nats win.
For the Central, the Cubs and Brewers are tied at 2 games behind the Cards. 
They're also tied for that last Wild Card spot behind the Nats.
The Cards face Scherzer tonight (WOOO!), while the Brewers face, uh, the Padres and Dinelson Lamet.
It's a baseball season ending up neck deep in intrigue, if only I could distance myself and think like that.
Because in reality, I'm so on edge that it's difficult to focus on regular things.
I had to do a u-turn yesterday.
Somewhere between Kedzie and Pulaski, I'm driving along, look up at a street sign that says "St. Louis".
I've lived here since '82.
THERE'S A STREET IN CHICAGO CALLED ST. LOUIS?
Somebody put charcoal fluid on my brain and tossed a match, then I missed my turn. 
So try and remain calm until 7:05 tonight, and pray Lester shows up as himself.
Go Cubs.

Cubs sweep. Rizzo injures ankle, MRI today.

99 MPH fastballs bounce off him.
Speaking strictly about watching Anthony Rizzo on a baseball field, I'd just... never seen him in so much pain before.
I can't even remember who bunted, but Rizzo charged a bunt, stepped in some really loose turf and his ankle went sideways.
But you didn't notice that at first - it was just a play and his throw went wide of first so the Pirate runner was safe and Quintana was in some seriously deep doo doo.
Then they cut to Rizzo who wasn't getting up. In fact, he was writhing around. He was hurt. Bad. I did that stupid slow motion NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO scream.
But Len and JD, I swear those guys have been to some kind of professional crowd control training, because their reaction was more like what you'd think a pilot would say when there's plane trouble - a calm reassuring voice and tone.
They showed the ankle turn in slow motion, and usually I say I almost hurled as kind of a joke, but this one wasn't a joke.
I really truly did think I was going to vomit.
Okay so the X-rays did not show a fracture, and today he'll get an MRI, and soon enough we'll get an idea of how damaged his ankle is.

The Cubs scored 47 runs and swept the Pirates and the Cards lost and the Bears won and were SO LUCKY.
And that's all I got for today.
Except this thought about the Baseball Gods of 2019:

Cubs 14 Pirates 1. So many homers!

So many homers, but my fav from yesterday was Nico Hoerner taking Clay Holmes deep after Holmes plunked 3 Cubs.
2 batters before, David Bote sort of ducked into a Holmes slider and came up screaming THAT'S TWO!
I'd forgotten it was Holmes who drilled Bote in the head earlier this season.
So benches ran onto the field, but instead of a fight breaking out the Cubs smartly stuck with baseball, and when you stick with baseball you can get your revenge in the sweetest possible manner.
A home run.
That's what Hoerner did, with 2 on, which brought his RBI total up to 4 for this game, 11 for the short amount of time he's been in the Bigs.
And if he keeps this up, he may become Nico Homer.
Also, I love when a kid like this comes up and... so he hits a big home run and rather than doing the grimacing "I KICKED YOUR ASS" attitude thing, he... smiled.
SO much fun!

Umm.. and uh, I got this started late today, and now today's game is on.

BRYANT!

Forgive me, but I gotta go.

Cubs slaughter Pirates, Castellanos gets his 50th double.

Remember how Mark Grace used to catch flack for not hitting enough home runs?
Over 16 years, he hit .303/.383/.442.
In '95 he hit .326/.395/.516.
Man, I'd like to see that somewhere in this current Cubs lineup.
Well actually, there's Nick Castellanos.
In 40 games with the Cubs, he's .329/.358/.677.
Gamer, that guy.
He hit his 50th double yesterday (13th with the Cubs), and that ties him with Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers for tops in all baseball.
Sweet.
 
The Cubs beat the hell out of Pittsburgh, although it was such an odd game with the wind whipping out.
Pirates score 4 in the first (with plenty of help from bad Cub fielding), and Lester... doesn't look so hot.
Cubs come right back with 5.
In the 5th, Cubs are up 10-4 but let the Pirates back in with 3 in the top of the inning.
Then, the Cubs add 7 in the bottom half.
It's 17-7, the Pirates add one in the 8th so it ends up 17-8.
Nico Hoerner hit one out in his first AB ever at Wrigley, ended up with another 4 RBI game and that kid is just killin' it.
Contreras hit 2 monsters (460' and 455', respectively), Rizzo hit a grand slam, and Castellanos smacked one, too.

The Cards creamed the Brewers 10- zip (Goldschmidt with a salami and 7 RBIs) so nothing changes as far as getting closer to 1st, but with Brewers loss the Cubs alone in 2nd spot, 2.5 behind the Nats, who also lost.

Today it's Kyle Hendricks against a kid from Duke, 25 year old James Marvel (5 innings pitched in the Bigs, 4 hits, 2 runs, 2 walks, 2 Ks).

Lastly, I LOVE what Hoerner's doing, but man do I miss El Mago.
When he slid in and got injured, he wasn't wearing one of those protective mitts.

I don't know what that red ring is, but it was his left thumb anyway.
So... I don't really see that many guys wearing those mitts, do you?
What else could MLB do?
I found a video (from '15 so I don't know if this is still current but...) where this dad and son cut a base in half (it's long but if you go to about 4 minutes in, you get to the cutting part).
Looks like this:

A thick coating of hard rubber over a middle of what sounds like memory foam.
While I think the idea of a breakaway base isn't a great idea, it would sure seem to me that MLB could protect players better with a better design of the base.
Like, can't it get "harder" as it goes towards the center, so that the outside would "give" somewhat when a freaking All Star shortstop goes flying into the bag?
The hard rubber all around - that's what's so stiff.
I'm not an engineer, but I bet there's someone who is, who can improve on the current design.

Okay, another must win today, and right now it's gorgeous out so... go get 'em Kyle!

On Becoming a God in Wrigleyville: Yu Darvish.

Oh how good did that feel?
Given the state of Yu Darvish's forearm, yeah I got a little concerned about the 110 pitches but... that was a game the Cubs needed just so bad.
Darvish was an ace. He is an ace.


He's becoming a God in Wrigleyville (I love that new Showtime series).
(EDIT - I JUST REYALIZED I SPELED "WRIGLEYVILLE" RONG IN THE PAYNTING)
6 innings, 14 strike outs, no runs, 2 hits, 2 walks.
The ump seemed to be equally inconsistent for both sides... whatever.
THAT FELT SO GREAT!
The suddenly hot again Jason Heyward with a couple hits, a double and a run scored.
Ian Happ had a couple hits as well.
Kris Bryant says his knee feels way better after his cortisone shot.
And Kid Nico - did you see the 10-pitch battle with Gerardo Reyes in the 9th?
Hoerner started out with a swinging strike.
Then 7 straight foul balls.
He's 0-2 after 8 pitches and then.. a 97 MPH fastball that he took for a ball outside.
He's 22 years old and yeah it's just the Padres but good GOD the confidence!
Then he singled.
Such promise I can hardly stand it.
In 2015 I got a text from Cardinal fan Dickie that said "WHO IS KYLE SCHWARBER?"
Yesterday the same text, only with "HOERNER".
Okay so if this season were an action movie and the Cubs were the good guy, they'd be up to their neck in quicksand and now just... barely... reached that rope the bad guys carelessly left nearby before they ran off.
CAN THEY PULL THEMSELVES OUT?
Gotta watch the ending, I guess.

Last night they flew 1700 miles in a little more than 4 hours.
So their Cub bodies were 2 hours behind us here in Chicago.
It was about 4 PM (SD time) when the game ended. They showered and drove to the airport so I imagine they took off by, say, 6 (SD time).
And they landed about 10 which was actually midnight (Chi time).
They'll be out on the field at Wrigley today at 3:05 to take on the Pirates with Jon Lester on the mound.
In his last 6 starts, he's gone win win lose/win win lose.
So I'll take that as a good sign that today he'll start the win thing back up.
Go Cubs.

Last thing, Saul Bass.
A design genius, and no I would never steal a "look" from anyone like that.
Me?
What no way!