OSS: Cubs sweep away the Padres for their 81st win.
Three up:
- The Cubs jumped on the Padres early, hitting two doubles and a triple in their first three plate appearances. The top of the order combined to go 5-13, scoring five runs.
- Kyle Hendricks struck out eight batters in six innings, and managed to hold the lead the offense provided to him. He worked out of a no out, runner on third jam in the third inning after Wil Myers tripled in the Padres second run, getting two infield flies and a strikeout to end the threat. His ERA bumped up to 2.19, still well ahead of Madison Bumgarner for the MLB lead.
- Willson Contreras went opposite field in the seventh to give the Cubs an insurance run it felt like they needed.
Three down:
- I’ve got nothing to complain about. Cahill gave up a run in relief of Hendricks, but that felt more like a shit happens kind of run, not a “the best team in baseball is secretly bad” kind of run.
Next up: The Cubs have an off day, then head to the play the Vin Scully Dodgers of Los Angeles for a three game set. This is probably our last chance to hear Vin calling a Cubs game, so I’m planning to tune in.
Comments
This is probably the first chance to hear Vin calling a Cubs game:
https://youtu.be/9w7Kt1vo-3Y?t=10m
SKQuote Reply
The Cubs’ 3rd order W/L is 89-37. They’re 7 games better than the next best team (Rangers), and have somehow been unlucky by 8 games.
This team is fucking unreal.
PerkinsQuote Reply
I just saw that the Marlins traded FOR Jeff Francoeur
joshQuote Reply
Perkins,
The Nationals are 2nd and about 9 games behind the Cubs. The Rangers have been the luckiest team in baseball this year. Glad it isn’t the Giants.
dmick89Quote Reply
dmick89,
Seriously. The Nats are really good, and the Giants have a decently scary rotation. I’d rather the Cubs face the Dodgers in a playoff series than either of them, even if Kershaw pitches again this year.
PerkinsQuote Reply
Perkins,
Yeah, I’d rather avoid the Nats. If Strasburg is healthy they’ll be very tough in a short series. So will the Cubs, but I feel that the Nats would have the pitching advantage in each game. The Cubs should have HFA to help them out though.
dmick89Quote Reply
Didn’t help in ’08 or ’03.
Shut up, SK.
SKQuote Reply
josh,
Good. Fuck the Marlins. May they never return to the playoffs.
ceruleanQuote Reply
Perkins,
The Dodgers are scary in the same way that the Cubs are—a new wave of impact talent—except their pitching isn’t healthy. I am leery of wishing to see them over the Giants or even the Nationals. However, the Giants are making a better bid for the wildcard team, by sucking, so they paradoxically are probably more of a threat to the Cubs postseason aspirations than the Dodgers. I think the Giants take care of the rather tame Cards in the wildcard game leading to all sorts of even year scares in Cub fans.
ceruleanQuote Reply
The Nats are about as likely to be a first seed as a wildcard team, so there is very little chance the Cubs would face them in the NLDS.
ceruleanQuote Reply
cerulean,
All good points, though they’d presumably have to burn Bumgarner in the WC game, so he’d only get one start. From a pure baseball standpoint, it’d be great to see them win the division and play against the Nats in the NLDS. Some great pitching matchups to be seen in that series.
I’m not terribly concerned about any of the teams in the postseason inasmuch as the Cubs are pretty easily the best team in MLB. I was happy to see them face the Mets last year in the NLCS since it meant no Kershaw and Greinke, and we all saw how that turned out. If the Cubs play as they have all year, they’ll probably go very deep. If they don’t, well shit happens in a playoff series. It could go either way.
PerkinsQuote Reply
U.S. Cellular Field sounds corporately bad, but referring to it as The Cell redeemed it. However, anyone that knows anything about that company knew that name wasn’t long for this world. But Guaranteed Rate with that awful mark (though appropriately downward pointing arrow considering both the name and the team’s trajectory) is simply hideous.
If I were running the negotiations, I would have forced such an awful name to really pay through the nose, unless there were no other viable candidates, which seems unlikely given the scarcity of large market sports teams. Jerry Reinsdorf is certainly not beloved, but that shouldn’t matter much in naming rights deals of this size. This tells me that Reinsdorf’s best offer came from Guaranteed Rate, and they didn’t blow every other bidder away. Was it a scant million dollars more than the next bidder? Ten million? That sounds like a big difference, but over thirteen years, it’s a pittance. Even a hundred million dollar discrepancy amounts to just 7 million a year, not enough to pick up an average win in free agency.
Long, dark times for Sox fans ahead. This isn’t just bad news, it’s meta-bad news. The only worse name I can think of is Trump Colosseum.
EDIT: Though, at least Trump Colosseum would be kind of epic and hilarious. I take it back, I can’t think of a more cringeworthy name.
ceruleanQuote Reply
Trump Coliseum: where every drink is a small so it’ll be sure to fit in your hands.
PerkinsQuote Reply
Which is precisely why he would compensate with a name that means colossus—a statue that is much bigger than life-size—the closer to it, the better.
ceruleanQuote Reply
Perkins,
This reminds me of a restaurant idea I had back when the Lord of the Rings movies came out—an Irish Pub with furniture and dishes so outlandishly large that it makes everyone feel like hobbits. It would be called Wee Little Pub. I think Trump could do a forced perspective in his colosseum—his suite would have slightly tiny furnishings, everyone else’s would have slightly large furnishings, which would make him appear both larger and farther away, like the demigod he is.
ceruleanQuote Reply
cerulean,
I nominate “God Fuck the Marlins” as our new national anthem.
joshQuote Reply
cerulean,
Ever been to The Cheesecake Factory (aka ‘home of the 4000 calorie entree’)? They could swap out a few key pieces of furniture and become The Prancing Pony pretty easily.
uncle daveQuote Reply
uncle dave,
My parents took me and my siblings to a Denny’s once in Washington DC. We left shortyly after being seated, and I still have no idea why. Ever since then I’ve had this strange hatred of Denny’s.
EdwinQuote Reply
cerulean,
I’m a sucker for British spelling, but I suppose he would spell it the American way.
PerkinsQuote Reply
josh,
For some reason I’m hearing it being sung to the tune of God bless America.
EdwinQuote Reply
Edwin,
That’s impossible; the title doesn’t scan.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Rizzo the Rat,
You’d have to stretch out the “ar” in Marlins to two syllables.
Look, I’m not a detail person, just someone write the song and let’s make it happen.
joshQuote Reply
josh,
OV has a job listing for a songwriter so we’re on it.
dmick89Quote Reply
Edwin,
Hatred of Denny’s is in no way strange.
uncle daveQuote Reply
uncle dave,
I think I ate there once or twice in Iowa City when I was drunk, but I’ve never eaten there sober.
dmick89Quote Reply
I didn’t even know if Topeka had a Denny’s so I looked online and it turns out it’s fairly close to this place I go to at least once a month. I never even noticed it.
dmick89Quote Reply
You’re in luck as I have been unknown to write a song or ten.
ceruleanQuote Reply
Except that the regular patrons will quickly fill the size of the chairs and even larger chairs would be necessary. Better would be to keep the secondsies spare.
ceruleanQuote Reply
Where else you gonna get a Moons Over My Hammie?
Wenningtons Gorilla CockQuote Reply
Wenningtons Gorilla Cock,
Yes.
uncle daveQuote Reply
dmick89,
Clearly you’re not drunk.
uncle daveQuote Reply
Wenningtons Gorilla Cock,
Just googled that to see what would come up. The first page is basically copycat recipes. It’s a ham, egg, and cheese sandwich. THE HOURS IT MUST HAVE TAKEN TO REVERSE ENGINEER IT!
uncle daveQuote Reply
Wainwright allowed 7 runs in 5 innings. His ERA went down.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
23 soon?
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
23.
PerkinsQuote Reply
http://obstructedview.net/series-preview-chicago-cubs-81-45-los-angeles-dodgers-los-angeles-71-55/
berseliusQuote Reply