OSS: Hamels stifles the Cards in his best start in a Cubs uniform so far.
Three up:
- Cole Hamels had a day, striking out ten Cardinals in eight scoreless innings and allowing just three hits and one walk. His game score of 89 is his best since joining the Cubs. In fact, it was his best game since 2016. The Cubs picking up his $20m option for this year is looking like a pretty good decision so far.
- Jazy Baez homered in the first to give the Cubs an early lead. It was both yet another homer on an 0-2 count and yet another oppo shot. Javy leads the majors in WAR for shortstops at 2.9.
- Vic Caratini had another solid day at the plate going 2-2 with a walk and a double. He has a whopping .350/.469/.550 line on the year. Given how Willson faded down the stretch due to his workload it’s good to see Caratini producing this year. Caratini did get 200 PAs last year but they were pretty forgettable.
Three down:
- The Cubs could have picked up another insurance run were it not for some confusion on a ball hit down the line that hit a security guard, which led to Rizzo being thrown out at home. I’d like to think that Ozuna throwing his hands up like it was a ground rule double was a good ruse, but he was probably as confused as everyone else.
- Not much else to complain about. The Cubs offense wasn’t exactly on fire in this one, but with this Hamels performance they didn’t need to be.
- The Brewers won, so the Cubs are still in first but only by percentage points.
Next up: Jack Flaherty takes on Jon Lester at 6:15 PM CT (Fox broadcast). Flaherty struck out 8 Cubs in five innings last weekend, allowing two runs. The guy racks up big pitch counts so hopefully the Cubs can take advantage.
Comments
Ozuna’s arm vs. Rizzo’s wheels was pretty epic. The funniest thing was how little everyone involved seemed to care.
andcountingQuote Reply
andcounting,
Any time Rizzo is running home on a close play I cringe. He didn’t even slide into home yesterday (dying laughing)
WaLiQuote Reply
(dying laughing) at the guys wearing BN’s “St Louis is Boring” shirts behind home plate.
berseliusQuote Reply
Fuck
WaLiQuote Reply
Welp
berseliusQuote Reply
Someone tell Jon Lester to pitch better.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Man lester is regressing hard
WaLiQuote Reply
Pretty sure I could hit one 400 feet off of Lester right now.
dmick89Quote Reply
Jhey just missed one
berseliusQuote Reply
That was unlucky for Heyward, but Contreras hit a ground ball with eyes earlier, so it all balances out.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Don’t look now, but Lester is on pace to break the single-game strikeout record.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Bryant is not having a good day on defense.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Javy!!!!
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
War bear!! Tie game!
WaLiQuote Reply
That was a laser. 115 mph exit velocity. 53’ high. 18° loft angle.
andcountingQuote Reply
Caratini!!!!!
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Smokestack LightningQuote Reply
Carrot!!
WaLiQuote Reply
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Smokestack LightningQuote Reply
Damn, too slow.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
My mlb.tv feed has been choppy af today. Switched to stream other stuff without any problems.
berseliusQuote Reply
Rizzo the Rat,
I disagree. Yours was better.
Probably a better cocktail too. The one I posted looks like carrot juice in a martini glass.
Smokestack LightningQuote Reply
Wrong. I’m 85% sure your picture is just orange juice with a carrot in a martini glass. Take the carrot out and you’ve got yourself a delicious drink. Whatever that other picture is, it looks disgusting. It looks like half reduced chicken stock and half urine.
dmick89Quote Reply
Ok, we’ve seen three pitches bounce way in front of home plate, and two of them were swung at.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Hm. I have yet to try chicken-stock-and-urine-tini, so I can’t say for sure whether it’s disgusting.
I am tempted to say it could go either way. But maybe this is one of those things that can’t.
Smokestack LightningQuote Reply
M—————-> inverted
berseliusQuote Reply
It looks like onetipsychick.com has a recipe for a really disgusting one. Good luck.
dmick89Quote Reply
just tried it, pretty decent
EnricoPallazzoQuote Reply
The Cubs are 22-3 in games I drink that. If you’re interested, just order Trough Tryst—they’ll know what it means.
andcountingQuote Reply
i’m sorry but this data is worthless unless you correlate it with a hat-based regression analysis
EnricoPallazzoQuote Reply
EnricoPallazzo,
Good point. I’ll take the under.
andcountingQuote Reply
Schwarber at leadoff this year: .244/.333/.547
I’ll take it. Wish the OBP was little higher (something you could say about every player ever).
I’ve just realized a hidden advantage to batting leadoff is that you come to the plate with less people on base, on average (for obvious reasons). Makes sense to have a Schwarber profile at leadoff for that reason – he sees lots of pitches, is a competent hitter (.793 OPS this year), and his strikeouts don’t mean as much when there aren’t runners to move. The tradeoff, obviously, is that his doubles/homers don’t score as many people. I’d be curious to see the results of that tradeoff.
Schwarber continues to be the most frustrating Cub on the team for me, as far as the delta between talent and production is concerned. At this point, I just assume he’ll never fix the hole in his swing and he’ll just be who he is.
MylesQuote Reply
http://www.obstructedview.net/cubs-9-cardinals-4/
berseliusQuote Reply