Cubs Swing Game, Davis Record, Umpires Protesting, and Other Bullets

Aug 20, 2017

The Cubs can get a sweep today, bringing the homestand against the (bad) Reds and (bad) Blue Jays to 5-2, which would be an absolutely excellent outcome. Even 4-3, if they lose today, is not horrible. It’s kind of amazing in that regard how big of a mental swing game today’s is – if they lose, we “feel” like this was an unsuccessful homestand, and if they win, it was excellent, and the Cubs are coming off of a sweep.

Fandom!

Roster moves in advance of today’s series finale, with catcher Rene Rivera officially being added (and starting!), and Koji Uehara returning from the disabled list.

Hey, how about Felix Pena coming up yesterday and striking out the side in a real setup inning? Because of the AAA/MLB reliever shuttle, some may have lost sight of the fact that this is very much a guy who could be a bullpen contributor for the Cubs in the future, but he’s got the stuff, without question.

Wade Davis tied a record yesterday, and although I do hope he breaks it, I hope he gets a comfortable day off today:

Wade Davis has tied Ryan Dempster’s franchise record with his 26th consecutive save! pic.twitter.com/CVwwEEJMPJ

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) August 19, 2017

Joe Maddon says he sees Davis as peaking at the right time, and he’ll have to be careful to manage Davis’s usage (Cubs.com).

As Luke mentioned in the Minor League Daily, Cubs pitching prospects Alec Mills and Oscar De La Cruz both pitched for the Arizona Rookie League Cubs as they finally return from lengthy injury absences. They won’t be able to get in much time before the end of the year, but perhaps they’ll be able to pick up innings in an offseason league.

The Cubs will be wearing their Players Weekend jerseys today, so that will be fun. A reminder that you can get the excellent-looking jerseys and caps here at the MLB Shop.

Random: Mike Trout is the quietest superstar in all of sports. Having returned from his thumb injury, the guy is hitting .339/.464/.700 with a 204 wRC+. MY GOD. His 5.7 WAR nearly leads baseball, even though he’s played in just 78 games.

Aroldis Chapman is now out as the Yankees closer. You are reminded that the Yankees signed him to an $85 million deal in the offseason after Chapman was used heavily by the Cubs.

Yes, this is real:

MLB umpires to wear wristbands in protest of 'escalating verbal attacks' from players https://t.co/7eikDd4ogC pic.twitter.com/rrM4hPbWjK

— CBS Sports MLB (@CBSSportsMLB) August 19, 2017

That, on the very same day Joe West made a terrible strike three call on Jon Jay, who yelled loudly as he walked away from West and intentionally did not engage West … who himself took off his mask, and stared down Jay in the hopes that Jay would turn so that West could UmpShow him.

Javy Baez is the man, and I thought that deserved reiterating:

I might not have guessed this:

The @Cubs have scored an NL-high 188 runs since the All-Star break, while hitting an @MLB-high 59 home runs in that span. pic.twitter.com/f9gosYDppD
— MLB Stat of the Day (@MLBStatoftheDay) August 19, 2017

Those cars aren’t *that* close!

Little League World Series Slugger Dents a Car in the Parking Lot with a Home Run! https://t.co/hvcgIRGg5x pic.twitter.com/Jo9zcAyk43
— Baseball is Fun (@flippingbats) August 20, 2017

Over at TYL, the Bears won their second preseason game, with contributions from both Mike Glennon and Mitch Trubisky, and there was a crazy special teams touchdown.

Yo, huge sale on the Amazon Echo today! It’s 44% off, under $100.

Also, tailgating gear from Coleman is a Deal of the Day at Amazon.

written by

Brett Taylor

Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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Cubs Swing Game, Davis Record, Umpires Protesting, and Other Bullets

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