Cubs 4, Pirates 5 – Cubs 2, Pirates 1 (9/15/15)

In Uncategorized by myles145 Comments

OSS: Cubs split with the Pirates with frustrating loss in Game 1 and semi-frustrating win in Game 2

Game 1

Three Up

1. Trevor Cahill has been great since coming to the Cubs on a minor-league deal. Since being released by the Braves, he's had a 2.79 FIP in his 4 Cubs appearances. He might get the start in the pen game coming up, and he helped his cause with 2 shutout, 1 hit, no walk innings.

2. Tommy La Stella pinch hit a double that scored Montero, bringing to 4-2. He knocked Cole out of the game, which brought in Joakim "Wild Pitch!" Soria. Great plate appearance by Streetcar there.

3. Man, Dexter Fowler is valuable. Another 1-3, BB day, getting the Cubs on board first. 

One Eh

1. Miguel Montero went 2-4 and scored a run, but he (along with Castro) had a throwing error in the 8th which set up the winning sacrifice fly. Not good.

Three Four Down

1. Jason Hammel looked awful in this game. The first inning has really been his bugaboo, and this game was absolutely no different.

2. Castro had an ugly end to this game, with a bad attempt at nailing Florimon stealing 2nd (allowing the ball to roll into center), and then an ugly AB against Melancon in the top of the 9th. not a great game by Starlin here.

3. Kyle Schwarber was ice cold this game, going 0-4 with 2 strikeouts.

4. Kris Bryant was ice colder, going 0-4 with 3 strikeouts and looking absolutely lost out there.

Game 2

Three Up

1. Jon Lester was worth $156 million dollars with his performance yesterday. He was 11 pitches away from the Maddux, and besides a shaky 7th inning he put together the best pitching performance not in a no-hitter thrown by the Cubs this year. The Dodgers match up against the Cubs well from a 1-2 standpoint; after that, I'll take Arrieta/Lester over DeGrom/Harvey, Cole/Burnett, and Wacha/Martinez.

2. Javier Baez had the sick defensive plays both games, and he also went 2-4 in this game with a double.

3. David Ross went 2-4 with a double and a run scored; more importantly, he was the field manager in the 7th inning and helped get Lester out of his mess. He is clearly going to have opportunities as a future manager when he retires.

Three Two Down

1. Addison Russell had a slick glove in this game, so his 0-4, 3 K performance is a little easier to swallow. He had some horrific plate appearances, though.

2. Kris Bryant again looked not very good. He managed to draw a walk, but he went 0-3 with 2 more strikeouts. I'm not overly worried, but it's something to note.

Eh, you know what?

Two One Down

Play of Game 1

Play of Game 2

 

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Comments

  1. JonKneeV

    1) Hammel hasn’t adjusted in 2 months. Everyone knows he’s going to pound the strike zone and they jump on him. We talk a lot about rookies needing to adjust to the league, we should do the same with Hammel.
    2) Baez is looking closer and closer to being an everyday starter. Huge improvements on defense and he’s consistently putting the ball in play, especially against non 95+ mph fastballers.
    3) We’re almost guaranteed to make the playoffs, but boy do I not feel good about having to throw out Hendricks/Hammel in a playoff game. I’d argue Hendricks has passed Hammel in the rotation.

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  2. dmick89

    JonKneeV,

    I’d start Hendricks in game 3 just because he’s seemed to have been more consistent, though I’m not entirely sure that’s accurate. I’d still start Hendricks in game 3. I have no faith in Hammel right now.

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  3. dmick89

    If the Cubs get past the Pirates, Arrieta would be the game 4 starter for what it’s worth. Lester, Hendricks, Hammel (Wood/Cahill not a bad idea to get through 6 either) and then Arrieta. Since we’re dreaming about future series, let’s just beat the Pirates, win the LDS in 3 and Arrieta can start Game 1 in the LCS. Problem solved.

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  4. Suburbank Id

    I wonder if Soler is back anytime soon.

    Has Maddon even used Berry or Szczur since rosters expanded?

    Guys who might not make 25-man roster could also include Cahill (is he even eligible)?

    I wonder if they reduce the pitching staff for playoffs to make sure they can keep Baez, Soler, and a pinch runner along with Herrera and Denorfia, who I assume will make the playoff bench.

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  5. dmick89

    Cahill is eligible. Maddon has basically confirmed that Baez would be on the playoff roster because of his defense alone. I think that leaves Herrera out. Soler probably leaves Denorfia out unless they go with an extra position player.

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  6. aisle424

    dmick89:
    Yeah, they can change it each series. Do they set a playoff roster for the 1-game series?

    I was wondering this myself. That would be an interesting roster because you can leave off 4 starters and keep extra bullpen & bench guys.

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  7. dmick89

    aisle424: I was wondering this myself. That would be an interesting roster because you can leave off 4 starters and keep extra bullpen & bench guys.

    You’d probably keep a couple of those starters just so you could potentially use them. For example, if Arrieta gets into trouble in the 6th and you’ve got Pedro Alvarez coming up, you might go with Jon Lester to get out of the jam. I’d definitely want to have that option available.

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  8. berselius

    dmick89: You’d probably keep a couple of those starters just so you could potentially use them. For example, if Arrieta gets into trouble in the 6th and you’ve got Pedro Alvarez coming up, you might go with Jon Lester to get out of the jam. I’d definitely want to have that option available.

    Lester doesn’t really seem like a guy who would be good coming out of the pen.

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  9. Suburbank Id

    Dusty Baker: Neither was Matt Clement.

    It is what it is.

    Also, while I hate change so I won’t say “nice site jabronis”, one thing I do like about this iteration is that the pages load real fast.

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  10. Author
    myles

    Suburbank Id: It is what it is.

    Also, while I hate change so I won’t say “nice site jabronis”, one thing I do like about this iteration is that the pages load real fast.

    I like how they don’t redirect me to Words with Friends on my phone.

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  11. JimL

    JonKneeV:1) Hammel hasn’t adjusted in 2 months. Everyone knows he’s going to pound the strike zone and they jump on him. We talk a lot about rookies needing to adjust to the league, we should do the same with Hammel.

    I don’t think it is just throwing strikes or not throwing strikes.

    Good pitchers (and when Hammel is on track he is a very good pitcher) are able to throw quality strikes. Pitches that paint the edges and corners of the zone. Right now Hammel doesn’t have that type of control. I do not know f his mechanics have degraded as the season has wore on or if his hamstring is still bother him causing him to alter his delivery, but he is clearly missing his spots and does not have the control he had earlier in the year. A lot of the strikes he throws are directly over theheart of the plate.

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  12. JimL

    dmick89,

    I read an article about this the other day so I am going by memory.

    I believe it is standard to use 14, 15, or 16 bench players in a WC game. You do not activate 3 of your 4 extra starters because they are not needed. If Arrieta is starting you probably keep Lester active but not to bring into a game in the 6th inning. Hopefully you win without Lester so hat he can start the next game. The reason Lester would be active is so that Madon can be aggressive with his bench and bullpen when he needs to be. Then if the game goes long and the bullpen is empty, you can bring in Lester and let him pitch until the game ends.

    You need that second starter so you can be aggressive with the bullpen and still be safe if the game goes long

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  13. JimL

    Also, I suspect that in a WC game that Maddon is going to overload the bench more than he will the bullpen. I fully expect Arrieta to throw 130+ pitches if he has to in a WC game. However with the offense being boom/bust schizophrenic comprised of lots of young players with a propensity to strikeout, I think Maddon is going to play the matchup game really hard with his bench hoping to eek out whatever offensive advantage he can.

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  14. JimL

    I like the new site. The look, the feel. Everything.

    However, am I the only one who is having a problem when I type in the comment box? It seems that a keypunch gets skipped every other word or so. You can blame it on user error (and I wouldn’t really argue) but it does not happen this badly on other websites I comment on.

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  15. JonKneeV

    Just read a comment on BN that said if the Pirates and Cardinals tie for the division, they have to play a one game tiebreaker to determine who gets the Bye. That’s the best case scenario in my mind. You’d think both teams would use their top pitcher.

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  16. aisle424

    JonKneeV:
    Just read a comment on BN that said if the Pirates and Cardinals tie for the division, they have to play a one game tiebreaker to determine who gets the Bye. That’s the best case scenario in my mind. You’d think both teams would use their top pitcher.

    I don’t know if that is true. I thought head-to-head record is determined if both teams qualify for the playoffs either way. Maybe that’s if there’s a tie to determine who is the home team for the WC game. Maybe both?

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  17. Suburbank Id

    aisle424: I don’t know if that is true.I thought head-to-head record is determined if both teams qualify for the playoffs either way. Maybe that’s if there’s a tie to determine who is the home team for the WC game. Maybe both?

    Yeah that’s what one of the beat writers was saying. Head to head record for WC tie but pre-playoff for division champ tie.

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  18. Smokestack Lightning

    JonKneeV,

    Except not drawing Cole means drawing Liriano if the Pirates drop that game, and that doesn’t really improve our fortunes, imo. Probably the best case scenario is the Cards drop the division game, and the Cubs hope the ups and downs of the Cardinal rotation the last few weeks goes down one more time.

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  19. dmick89

    JimL:
    I like the new site. The look, the feel. Everything.

    However, am I the only one who is having a problem when I type in the comment box? It seems that a keypunch gets skipped every other word or so. You can blame it on user error (and I wouldn’t really argue) but it does not happen this badly on other websites I comment on.

    Great points about the WC game prior to this comment. Thank you. As for the text box thing, do me a favor, go to the previous thread and try it out. It’s possible the embedded videos are causing some issue on your browser. I can’t thing of any other reason why that would happen for you other than that. Please let me know if it happens on the previous thread. If it does, what OS and browser are you using and do you notice it with other browsers? Thanks.

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  20. dmick89

    JonKneeV: Nope, still broken. No dinner for you, dmick.

    It’s on my short list of things to look into. I have the old plugin ready and waiting to move over to this site, but I haven’t checked to make sure it’s been updated. If not, I’ll have to find another or go without it.

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  21. dmick89

    Smokestack Lightning:
    JonKneeV,

    Except not drawing Cole means drawing Liriano if the Pirates drop that game, and that doesn’t really improve our fortunes, imo. Probably the best case scenario is the Cards drop the division game, and the Cubs hope the ups and downs of the Cardinal rotation the last few weeks goes down one more time.

    I’d much rather face Liriano, but I think the Cubs are going to have a small advantage in an Arrieta/Cole game even if it’s in Pittsburgh. I’m less hopeful than I was a week ago, but still holding out a little hope that the Cubs can pass the Pirates and play that game at Wrigley. Cubs would be big favorites in that game if it’s at Wrigley.

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  22. Author
    myles

    I don’t think there is a great chance that the Cubs pass up the Pirates. I think the only thing left to do this season is to figure out who in the bullpen can be trusted in the playoffs. That list begins and ends with Rondon right now.

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  23. dmick89

    myles: I think the only thing left to do this season is to figure out who in the bullpen can be trusted in the playoffs.

    Is there really enough time left in the season to do that? I’m not even certain an entire season is long enough to know that.

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  24. Rizzo the Rat

    I’m fascinated by Maddon’s latest experiment in having the pitcher hit ninth. I can’t wait to see how that turns out.

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  25. Rizzo the Rat

    PItching is such a specialist skill that pitchers tend to be pretty terrible at every other aspect of the game, especially when they’re wearing Cubs unifroms.

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  26. uncle dave

    I might have been inclined to pinch hit and try to add on here, but then again I guess I’m not used to having a guy like Arrieta on the team.

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  27. Rizzo the Rat

    uncle dave:
    I might have been inclined to pinch hit and try to add on here, but then again I guess I’m not used to having a guy like Arrieta on the team.

    Maddon still thinks he’s managing in the American League.

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  28. Rizzo the Rat

    If someone hits the ball over the outfield fence in this series, everyone will have to check the rulebook to see what happens next.

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  29. dmick89

    Rice Cube:
    Hey guys, that was a good game.I am not a robot.

    Does that not a robot thing show up if you’ve registered for an account? It might be set to show up until someone has a couple comments or something. Thanks.

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  30. JimL

    dmick89: As for the text box thing, do me a favor, go to the previous thread and try it out. It’s possible the embedded videos are causing some issue on your browser.

    I am pretty sure it is the embedded video causing some issues on my browser. The longer I have an OV webpage open, the less it happens.

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  31. dmick89

    myles:
    JimL,

    I will put less videos in my posts from now on.

    I’ve noticed the mlb.com videos kind of do that. Other embeds don’t seem to have the same kind of problems. I haven’t noticed any with this page for what it’s worth.

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  32. dmick89

    Users can post images in the comments now. I know uncle dave asked about that so I’ve edited the code necessary to allow for that.

    [img src=”http://www.domain.com/imageurl.png”]

    Replace the brackets with < and >

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  33. dmick89

    That edit comment link will be removed for people who don’t have access to the back end. I’ll look into a solution for others, but I’m going to put this off until the weekend.

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  34. JonKneeV

    Also the Jared Weaver-Kyle Seager exchange from last night. As pointless as hitting players on purpose normally is, I’m cool with that one. Kyle Seager was really turning up the douche factor. Hitting someone because they went hard on you? Not cool. Hitting someone who is obnoxiously being douche-y, approved.

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  35. dmick89

    Pirates announcers talking about whether there should be a collision rule at 2nd. One of them said “it seems there are more injuries at 2nd.”

    Maybe because more runner attempt to reach 2nd base than home? Idiots.

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  36. berselius

    dmick89:
    Pirates announcers give an update for Kang: left knee injury.

    I knew there was a reason I hated listening to these clowns.

    (dying laughing)

    Also, clown pirates would be pretty terrifying if they tried to board my OV yacht.

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  37. berselius

    btw, mb, I’ve been watching more Shameless lately. I’m in the middle of S3, Fiona just found out Frank was the one who called DCS. Can’t wait to see how many new assholes she rips open.

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  38. uncle dave

    dmick89,

    Was looking forward to a post about posts, but this’ll do.

    Nitpicky bullshit thing: can’t find an option to add an avatar in the control panel. Am I just dumb? Or am I dumb and is there no way to do that?

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  39. berselius

    uncle dave:
    dmick89,

    Was looking forward to a post about posts, but this’ll do.

    Nitpicky bullshit thing: can’t find an option to add an avatar in the control panel.Am I just dumb?Or am I dumb and is there no way to do that?

    They’re through gravatar

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  40. dmick89

    uncle dave: Nitpicky bullshit thing: can’t find an option to add an avatar in the control panel. Am I just dumb? Or am I dumb and is there no way to do that?

    Check gravatar or WordPress.com. It’s not a local avatar. The ones I’ve seen that add that functionality are old. I’ll look some more though, but adding one at gravatar will do.

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  41. berselius

    dmick89:
    It’s nice to finally see some home runs, but I was hoping some would be hit by the Cubs.

    At least the Cubs have a lineup now where a 1-run lead doesn’t feel like a 10-run lead.

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  42. JimL

    dmick89: That edit comment link will be removed for people who don’t have access to the back end. I’ll look into a solution for others, but I’m going to put this off until the weekend.

    Thanks for all of the time and effort you put into this site. It may be a rank cesspool sitting in the smelly backwaters of the internet, but it is a rank cesspool that I find entertaining, educational, and thought provoking.

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  43. berselius

    JimL: Thanks for all of the time and effort you put into this site. It may be a rank cesspool sitting in the smelly backwaters of the internet, but it is a rank cesspool that I find entertaining, educational, and thought provoking.

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  44. berselius

    dmick89:
    When was the last time Grimm was any good? Seems like it’s been awhile.

    I thought they worked him a bit too much after he came back from his injury

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  45. berselius

    Cubs 2 games back of the Pirates for the honor of coin flipping at home, and the Pirates get Grienke and Kershaw up next.

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  46. dmick89

    JonKneeV:
    133 comments. I’m no mathematician, but that’s a lot around here. Myles, we need a new post about posts and fanshots.

    We used to get a ton of comments, but shit happened. Hoping we get some more with the new setup. Also planning to do some more writing as soon as we get this site up and running how we want. Need to do a few things yet with it.

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  47. dmick89

    I’ve found an edit comments plugin that is supported by the creator with regular updates. It’s not going to be added today. I’ve got to make a few edits to get rid of the current link that doesn’t work for non-admins first. I also need to make a few styling changes though it’s doubtful it’s anyone other than me will notice, but they’re bothering me (dying laughing)

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  48. dmick89

    I’ve missed the thumbs up feature, but I cannot find a decent addon to enable that. WordPress.com blogs have that feature now and have for about a year so it’s possible it will come to self-hosted blogs in the future, but as of now, there’s nothing available that can be added without security concerns.

    Getting back to baseball, that was a great series. A lot of fun.

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