Cubs Win!

The Cubs played well Tuesday night.  Nothing remarkable, but I feel I ought to put out a post since I was there.  The game was a pitchers' duel until the sixth inning when the Cubs broke it open with three runs.  Zobrist started it with a home run.  The Cubs then loaded the bases before Avila singled and Heyward hit a sacrifice fly.  Later on Rizzo hit an RBI double to drive home Bryant, who had walked.  That's Rizzo above standing at second base after the hit.

Arrieta pitched a good game.  I was a little surprised to see him removed after the three run rally, but he was at 97 pitches.  I still like to see starters go seven innings, especially when they are working on a two-hit shutout.  Perhaps I am more old school than I imagine.  Uehara immediately gave up a home run and the Cubs needed two more relievers to bring the game to Davis who pitched a scoreless ninth inning.

Since St. Louis clobbered Milwaukee, the Cubs extended their division lead to 3 1/2 games.

Speaking of being old school or whatever, but I have been going to baseball games since I was six years old and I don't remember so many fans getting hit and hurt by foul balls.  I was sitting in a box seat well down the right field line.  Someone was hit by a Baez liner well above where I was seated and maybe ten rows over, probably in line with where the bullpens used to be.  I couldn't see much, but people were gathered around the injured person for ten or fifteen minutes before he was moved out.  Down there you usually get popups and lazy foul flies, especially that far up and down the line.  The really mean fouls used to land in the lower infield boxes.  Not sure if people are just not paying much attention or if the balls are being hit a lot harder than expected on these occasions.

Montgomery

The Cubs won Monday night largely on the strength of Mike Montgomery's pitching performance.  Actually, I have made this point on several occasions.  The Cubs are only as good as their starting pitchers.  This season they have not been up to the performances they recorded last year.  The Cubs have a championship caliber lineup that has not been performing as such for whatever reason.  So when their starters do not pitch into the seventh inning at least in a tighter game, the bullpen starts failing more often and they wind up looking pretty mediocre.  Such was the case pretty much throughout the so-called basement tour when they went 8-5 against the worst teams in baseball.

It is true that there has been improvement in this regard since the All-Star break, but there are still problems.  Lester is hurt, but before that, in August, he was not pitching well or deep into games.  Maybe it was the injury.  Who knows?  Lackey seemed to have turned the corner after returning from the DL, but lets face it, he had outstanding run support in that stretch and he still never made it past the sixth inning.  Quintana has been a major disappointment, and, again, has not pitched deep into games.

That leaves just Hendricks and Arrieta among the starters who can be relied upon consistently, as well as Montgomery who has pitched very well in a stopgap role, better than the guys he has been replacing.

I read where the Cubs were kicking around the idea of using a six man rotation through September.  To my mind, it's a good idea.  Maybe it will help.

The Basement Tour Continues

Actually, this is a pretty good time for the Cubs to be playing last place teams.  Not only do they need to put some distance between themselves and their division rivals, but they have experienced some injury issues.  Addison Russell is still sidelined, as is Willson Contreras, not to mention Jon Lester missing at least one turn.

In terms of the pitching shortfall, Mike Montgomery acquitted himself quite well on Tuesday evening, delivering six scoreless innings after being staked to a nine run lead early on.  In any case, the Cubs are 7-2 in the first phase of the tour.  They have extended their lead over the Brewers to 3 1/2 games.

As mentioned above, the remainder of the Cubs schedule is pretty easy.  The only teams above .500 they have to play are division rivals Milwaukee and St. Louis.  These might be tough series and will undoubtedly determine the division winner, but these are teams the Cubs can beat.

Tough Losses

The Cubs have been playing indifferent baseball again lately.  They had a good series against Arizona, but the return home has not been the expected triumph.  They split a series with a really awful Cincinnati team when they might have swept or at least taken three of four.

Hard to say what's gone wrong.  They have a stretch coming up where they play some bad teams.  Theoretically, they should fatten up on this competition and coast home from there, but I am beginning to wonder.

Thursday's loss was a tough one, not merely because Lester had a bad outing and left with an injury, but when you come back from nine runs down and tie the game, you have to win.  Once again, the bullpen could not come through late.  This time it was Grimm and Wilson who blew it.  Actually, the late inning relievers almost botched up the Wednesday night game as well.

It's hard to figure why these guys cannot throw strikes late in the game.  They seem to be pitching without confidence or else too fine.  Walks killed them in the other series they messed up earlier in the month, but those were against good teams.  Part of the problem is the starting pitching.  They have been pretty good of late.  Most notably, Lackey and Arrieta look as if they are back in form.  Hendricks also seems like his old self.  The thing is that they are still not pitching into the seventh inning most of the time.  This means that instead of needing to cover two or three innings at most, the relievers have to cover three or four or even five.  Over the long haul, this is going to take its toll.

I expect the Cubs thought the addition of Wilson would take away some of the pressure, but Wilson has been terrible.  Uehara is hurt, so the Cubs have had to bring back Grimm.  Grimm has had a dreadful year, so that just makes things worse.  Although they have had some issues, the Cubs can only rely on Montgomery, who is really the long man as evidenced in Thursday's game when he shut the door and kept the team in the game, Strop, Edwards, Duensing, and Davis.

Grimm and Wilson are useless.  Rondon is struggling as well.  This is OK if you need to cover two innings, but should you need three or more, you have to go with Grimm and Wilson, so you are likely to give up some runs.  The other factor here is that Maddon insists on managing his bullpen in a particularly unimaginative fashion.  He will never use Davis when the team is behind, even by a single run when there is no possibility of a save opportunity.  He will rarely use him in a tie game either, even at home.  Wednesday's game was a rare exception and it payed off.  Maddon rarely goes to his first string when the game is tied or the opponent has a narrow lead.

So what this adds up to is this.  The Cubs are in big trouble if Lester misses more than one start and they don't get Uehara back pretty soon.  They are still likely to hang on to the division, but after that, it is anyone's guess how far they will go.

Losing Homestand

The Cubs head west to play the Giants and Diamondbacks still in first place by half-a-game.  Willson Contreras is still on fire at the plate.  It is difficult to ponder how bad the series with Arizona and Washington might have been without his bat, but the fact is they still lost both series.  It is also the case they probably should have won them were it not for bullpen issues.

The Thursday loss to Arizona was a weird game in which the Cubs game back to tie the score only to lose it in the ninth when Wade Davis gave up two home runs.  I suppose this is going to happen every once in a while.  Davis is certainly among the best closers in the league and he is entitled to blow a game every once in a while.

Edwards is another story altogether.  He has just been awful lately.  Either he cannot throw strikes or he gets hammered.  I know he has electric stuff and all that and I know that Maddon thinks he is great, but it is probably time to think about giving him a breather or changing his role.  Sunday's game was a disaster.

It's likely that the Cubs, Diamondbacks, Dodgers, and Nationals will be the playoff teams in the NL.  What with the Dodger running away with the West, the Cubs are likely to face the Nationals in the first round of the playoffs.  I think the teams are evenly matched right now.  I also think the Cubs can survive that round, but the odds on getting to the Series based on current trends seem slim.