Cubs 13, Cardinals 5

In Postgame by berselius77 Comments

OSS: Cubs sweep their way to first place.

Three up:

  1. The entire offense was rolling in this one, and it’s tough to single out any one player. Jason Heyward actually had the biggest WPA play of the day on his fifth inning RBI triple that put the Cubs up 2-0. Rizzo’s double in the sixth and Willson’s solo shot that got things going were all pretty close in value.
  2. It didn’t mean much at that point in the game (.001 WPA), but Bryant’s grand slam in the bottom of the eighth inning put an exclamation point on the Cubs series sweep. After a slow start, his line has crept up to .243/.380/.450, good for a .361 wOBA and 125 wRC+. He’s got some more climbing to do to get back to the 140 ish wRC+ he was posting pre injury, but the trajectory certainly looks good.
  3. Quintana’s line (6 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 2 K) looks worse than I thought his performance actually was. He gave up a bunch of hits, but through the first 5.2 innings it went pretty smoothly as it was nothing but singles. The Cardinals added a couple of TOOTBLANs for good measure. Yadi finally got some good contact on him in the sixth, which eventually ended up chasing him from the game. But for a night where the wind was blowing out he seemed to be managing things pretty well.

Zero down

No complaints at all in this one!

Next up: The Cubs start a four game series against the Marlins, who have yet to hit double digit wins. It’s possible that this is one of those ‘trap’ series that the Cubs brass ID’d before the series, so hopefully the team keeps their foot on the gas. I won’t have time to write a full Preview, so here are the pitching matchups and game times:

  • Monday: Sandy Alcantara, RHP vs Cole Hamels, LHP, 7:05 PM CT
  • Tuesday: Caleb Smith, LHP vs Jon Lester, LHP, 7:05 PM CT
  • Wednesday: Jose Ureña, RHP vs Kyle Hendricks, RHP, 7:05 PM CT
  • Thursday: Trevor Richards, RHP vs Yu Darvish, RHP, 1:20 PM CT

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Comments

  1. cerulean

    16–4 in their last 20. Extending the win streak to 10 straight will have them 17–3.

    Fortunately, the hapless Marlins are coming to town. Maybe Almora can teach the team how to fillet them on the spot. Mmm, sushi.

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  2. andcounting

    I actually liked Chatwood in this game. It seems dumb when he gave up three runs, but I liked that he went in to “go ahead and hit this shit, I refuse to walk anyone “ mode, which is exactly what you should do when you’re up 11. When you find yourself applauding your last pitcher throwing BP in the 9th, you know it’s a feel-good series for the ages.

    I seriously can’t believe this team is in first place.

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  3. WaLi

    andcounting: I seriously can’t believe this team is in first place.

    The Cubs have the best Run Differential, the second most Runs/Game (5.67), and 10th best Runs Allowed / Game (4.23). They are rocking it right now.

    It’s amazing that I thought Maddon would be fired in the first week of the season. Those first few games the team looked absolutely lost but now here we are.

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  4. Ryno

    https://www.si.com/vault/1998/05/18/243269/flame-thrower-the-cubs-kerry-wood-whos-only-20-used-a-searing-heater-and-sharp-breaking-balls-to-strike-out-20-astros-in-perhaps-the-most-dominant-pitching-performance-in-baseball-history

    By the time Wood was a senior at Grand Prairie (Texas) High, there were enough speed guns in the stands to monitor traffic on I-45. “It was normal for 40 scouts to be at his games,” says Mike McGilvray, who coached Wood at Grand Prairie. “Luckily, he’s always been a mature kid who handles pressure real well.” After Wood finished his senior year 14–0, with an 0.77 ERA and 159 strikeouts in 81 innings, he was tapped by the Cubs and rewarded with a $1.265 million signing bonus. The weekend after the draft, in a state playoff series, Wood threw a 146-pitch two-hitter to win the opener of a doubleheader. Then, on 30 minutes’ rest, he came back to pitch the nightcap, a 16-4 victory that he cemented by belting a grand slam.

    Thanks for that, asshole.

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  6. andcounting

    Ryno,

    So funny that he used the word luckily. The kid’s ability to handle pressure, like the health of his pitching arm, is a matter of pure luck, unaffected by the people responsible for his upbringing.

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  7. Author
    berselius

    Ryno,

    IIRC, there is/was a coach at Rice who was notorious for this shit that Keith Law was trying to get fired for years.

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  9. BVS

    Things are better now. Here in SC high schools have strict pitch limits and everyone watches them. If you throw more than X pitches in a game then you have to have Y days off. I think the top limit is 90 and 5 days. Don’t remember exactly bc I just play the walk up music and announce names.

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  11. BVS

    SK,

    Nope. The coach is a friend and I like baseball. If I do the box stuff, then it frees up parwnts to watch.

    I’ve learned (and vetoed) an awful lot of rap music that I’d never have listened to before. For example, I’m not playing a song with a refrain of “F n N, F n N.” The N isn’t the N word, but I guess F and N is a ammo company. Still doesn’t pass. (dying laughing)

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  12. BVS

    BVS,

    My daughter is finishing 6th grade. She played softball one season and gave it up for soccer and swimming. Where we live, 7th grade girls often make the JV team, which is the same season and baseball. So we’ll see what happens next year

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  13. andcounting

    No off day today after three straight and 5 games in the last 7 days? I would have liked to see Lou Gehrig try out his “iron man” streak under these conditions.

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  14. cerulean

    BP has the Cubs winning almost 84 games. How long will it take for them to project 90+ wins? How hot would this team have to be to get there by the end of May? Would not losing a game even do it?

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  16. Author
    berselius

    To-day’s base ball squadron

    RF Zobrist
    3B/1B Bryzzo
    SS El Mago
    C Willson
    CF Heyward
    2B McBoteface
    LF War Bear
    P Hamels

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  17. cerulean

    Perkins,

    I know. PECOTA is probably putting way too much weight on framing runs while factoring out breakout seasons (Baez and Contreras the year before) and further regressing pitching to the aging curve decline.

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  52. Rizzo the Rat

    Good thing Ryan let that insurance run score. Otherwise, Bryant would have tied the game up there.

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  58. Author
    berselius

    WaLi:
    SK,

    (dying laughing) I thought it was because he made amazing Will Ferrell impressions, but I’ve been wrong before.

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  59. Author
    berselius

    To-day’s base ball squadron

    CF Almora
    3B Bryant
    1B Rizzo
    SS Baez
    C Contreras
    2B Bote
    RF Heyward
    LF Zobrist
    P Lester

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  60. andcounting

    WaLi:
    Not a good loss. It’s never fun seeing the Cubs best reliever blow a lead in a 9th.

    Their best reliever is replacement level. Whatever Strop can be or has been, he is not superior to anyone else in the bullpen right now. He is certainly not good enough to keep in a game longer than 2 or 3 batters when he has zero command.

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  61. Author
    berselius

    berselius:
    To-day’s base ball squadron

    CF Almora
    3B Bryant
    1B Rizzo
    SS Baez
    C Contreras
    2B Bote
    RF Heyward
    LF War Bear
    P Lester

    Fixed

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