Cubs 6, Phillies 2 (5.27.16)

In Commentary And Analysis by berselius77 Comments

OSS: David Ross picks up his 100th HR and the Cubs roll the Phillies on a stormy day.

Three up

  1. David Ross hitting his 100th homer was the big story of the day. I was at lunch and missed it but you'd have to think that Pat Hughes called it a Turning Point. A lot of us here didn't want Ross to come back this season and he's hewed to ACB/OV tradition by proving us wrong. Shut me right up. Ross's great final season has been one of the best of the many fun storylines this year.
  2. Not long before Grandpa's home run, Jorge Soler hit an absolute moonshot off the left field scorebaord to put the Cubs up 2-1. Added to his RBI single in the first inning, he was the Cubs WPA leader on the day. Great to see him mash against the kind of pitcher he should be destroying.
  3. Jon Lester had a nice bounce-back start following the team's shortest outing of the season in his last go-round. He struck out seven and walked two, allowing two runs in 6.1 (almost) rain-shortened innings. The first run can hardly be blamed on him, as it resulted from a two-error play by Dex and Javy.

Three down

  1. The double-error play is the only particular thing that stands out as bad. *shrug*
  2. The Cardinals are winning.
  3. The Pirates are winning.

Next up Eickhoff v Hendricks, 1:20 CT

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Comments

  1. Rizzo the Rat

    I’m not too worried about the Cardinals (I still want them to lose, of course), but the Pirates are getting annoying.

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  2. cerulean

    Mets blew a four-run lead in the top of the ninth, only to walk it off on a Granderson homerun in the bottom of the inning.

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  3. SK

    dmick89:
    I’m not worried about either of them.

    Just simmed a season with current lineups/ratings on MLB the Show. Cubs won 102 games with Cardinals 11 games back and Pirates 21 back.

    I’m not worried about them either, but that result reflects the order in which I would worry about them if I was worried about them.

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  4. dmick89

    SK,

    If the Cubs stay relatively healthy, I don’t see any way they don’t win this division by at least 5 games. If I had to guess right now, here’s what I’d predict for the final win totals:

    Cubs: 101
    Pirates: 88
    Cardinals: 84

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  5. SK

    I’ll be in Denver in a couple weeks for a work trip. I will have one free day to dick around, if anyone has any recommendations. Rockies will be in town so that’s the default option.

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  6. SK

    dmick89,

    That’s about where I see the Cubs. Fuck if I know about the others, although a good chunk of those Cubs wins are going to come at their expense.

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  7. cerulean

    I still think this team is at least a 105-win team that will challenge records for wins and run differential.

    The argument against this is that shit happens. And my argument against that is that shit has happened. This recent cold streak has done nothing but reinforce this, which is to say, they were extremely unlucky, and it is unlikely to continue. I think they are back in a hot streak, facing an overachieving team (Phillies) and an underachieving team (Dodgers) at the right time.

    The team was overbuilt from the get go. It has been pretty amazing to see it pan out like my head was telling me in the offseason and my heart wouldn’t let me entertain. Shit will still happen and they will win 105 games. Maybe 117.

    Their are two deficiencies that have to do with pitching: Another TOR and another lockdown reliever.

    Talk me down from this ledge.

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  8. EnricoPallazzo

    caarrie muskat on twitter: “why didnt ross get doused during post-game tv interview? because szczur grabbed coller filled with ammonia, not water or gatorade.”

    ummm….is this a joke that i don’t get, or is there actually a cooler filled with ammonia that is not clearly labeled? this seems really odd for many reasons.

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  9. EnricoPallazzo

    cerulean: Their are two deficiencies that have to do with pitching: Another TOR and another lockdown reliever.

    Talk me down from this ledge.

    could they use another TOR arm? sure. so could every team in the history of baseball. do they need one? i really don’t think so. hammel hasn’t conclusively shown that first-half hammel is a fluke and second-half hammel is the real hammel. and hendricks has been great. there are question marks, sure, but that’s why they are #4 and 5. their starters have the best ERA in baseball by a HUGE margin.

    as for the rotation….yeah that could use some help. i’m still scratching my head about the neil ramirez dfa but obviously thoyer know something i don’t. fortunately when you are scoring 14 runs per game, the bullpen doesn’t matter.

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  10. Author
    berselius

    SK,

    Coors is great but I would advise against the upper deck seats. The purple row is a mile high and about a mile away from the action. You can street park for free 10 mins or so north of the stadium nearby a fantastic brewery/taproom (Epic Brewing). It’s number one on my list if I go up there in August for the Cubs Rockies series. Also in Denver the downtown 16th street pedestrian mall is nice. If you want to get out of the city go to Rocky Mountain NP, it’s gorgeous but I wouldn’t recommend any long hikes unless you are used to the altitude.

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  11. cerulean

    EnricoPallazzo,

    I didn’t state my assumption clearly: I mean improvements to the team that give them the best shot to carve up teams in the playoffs.

    Hendricks and Hammel are more than solid, and I trust them more each day, but I feel this trust is like that a turkey has toward its beneficent master that feeds it everyday before Thanksgiving. Maybe it’s all for real. Maybe it’s the beard for Hammel—he looks good. Hendricks should grow one too. He could be amazing.

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  12. cerulean

    I love how a bunt single started the game, and then Hendricks picked him off.

    And then Dex sends it out.

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  13. cerulean

    cerulean:
    Pat called Howard Heyward and I thought This team is so good they won’t even let the Phils bat.

    (They pretty mich didn’t let this Phils bat. Great start for Hendricks.)

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  14. dmick89

    Frisco, Colorado is one of my favorite places. It’s about 60-70 miles away from Denver. It’s near Breckenridge. There’s always a ton of stuff to do in those two places. Lots of festivals and open concerts, hiking, biking, drinking, eating. Not sure if you’re wanting to get away from Denver, but instead of RMNP, I’d say go to Frisco or Breckenridge for a couple days and hang out. There’s almost always something going on locally that’s fun to attend.

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  15. dmick89

    cerulean: I still think this team is at least a 105-win team that will challenge records for wins and run differential.

    I think even if this team was actually a true talent 115 win team, which I think we both agree they are not, they’d probably fail to win 110 games. Maddon would get his main players all kinds of rest in September since they’d have wrapped up the division by the first week of September. There would be 3-4 weeks where it’s like spring training. You’d have 4 starters and 4 subs (a couple of call-ups). The starters would probably get an extra day off and they’d give a start to ClayDick or Travis Wood.

    So even if they’re at 100 wins entering September, which is highly unlikely, I’d still take the under on 115.

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  16. cerulean

    Pat and Ron talking about 19th century White Stockings (Cubs) opponents. All I can think about is how the Greys is a great name for a baseball team from Roswell, NM.

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  17. EnricoPallazzo

    cerulean,

    Exactly. Even if they’re not starting their regulars in September, it’s not like they’re calling up a bunch of scrubs. It’ll be guys like Wilson contreras and Albert almora. And the teams they’re playing may or may not be calling up scrubs anyway.

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  18. cerulean

    berselius:
    Hendricks is dealing today. We might even see the rare 8th inning Hendricks appearance.

    I saw a double rainbow yesterday. It was a sign.

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  19. EnricoPallazzo

    Rice Cube,

    Yeah the food is brutal but it’s very entertaining from a people watching perspective.

    Granted, I was on a decent amount of acid when I went so take this recommendation with a grain of salt.

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  20. Author
    berselius

    Zobrist and Heyward were just doing me a solid, because otherwise I’d be at a complete loss to have anything in the recap’s three down (dying laughing).

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  21. cerulean

    berselius:
    Zobrist and Heyward were just doing me a solid, because otherwise I’d be at a complete loss to have anything in the recap’s three down (dying laughing).

    (dying laughing)

    Here are other things to gripe about:

    Only one homerun.
    They didn’t score at least seven runs more than the Phils to push their run differential past +130.

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