Historic Offensive Explosion, Tseng’s Performance, and Other Bullets

You’ll have to forgive the later Bullets today, as I was at a doctor’s appointment this morning. My left foot is a little jacked up. Not so much that it inhibits my walking, but enough that the discomfort keeps growing to the point where I figured I better get it looked at before it seriously starts causing problems.

… ugh. Before I finished this post, I finished up my appointment and it’s actually worse than I thought. I have to get foot surgery to re-align some things thanks to an injury I originally suffered 15 years ago. That sucks.

Cubs better win today, or I’m really gonna be sour …

  • Gotta love an offensive explosion the very next series after the Cubs’ bats did absolutely nothing:
  • In fairness, of course, the Cubs faced high-quality pitching against the Brewers this past weekend, and faced a “pitching staff” this week against the Mets.
  • The lineup for today’s game against the Cardinals is already out, by the way.
  • Jen-Ho Tseng admitted that he was nervous for last night’s start, and it only got worse when he threw behind the leadoff batter for a walk after getting Jose Reyes down 0-2 to start the game (ESPN). From there, he made an error, hit a batter, and generally looked like a 22-year-old making his big league debut. There will probably be brighter days for Tseng, but that was an experiment that did not work out for the Cubs, who wound up having to use Mike Montgomery and Brian Duensing for multiple innings in the game. Fortunately, neither threw a ton of pitches, and should still be available, at the latest, by tomorrow.
  • To his credit, Tseng did flash good command and stuff at times – he struck out six in his three innings – but the whole package wasn’t quite on display, as he’ll need even better command of all four pitches to have consistent big league success. The changeup looked really good last night, but the fastball and the cutter weren’t where they needed to be.
  • Craig Edwards takes a really interesting look at the concept of the Cubs “underachieving” this year, and sees that, the position player group as a whole actually isn’t underperforming much (or at all) this year. Instead, the “underachieving” comes from the starting rotation, both in the results and the innings logged.
  • Anthony Rizzo knocked homer number 32 last night, and he was also honored as the Cubs’ nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award:
  • That’s Rizzo’s fifth straight nomination from the Cubs, but he hasn’t won the award yet. He tells ESPN that he really wants to win it.
  • Javy Baez’s braids are growing to further strengthen him for the stretch run:
  • (Photo by Jon Durr/Getty Images)

  • To be quite clear, I’m not mad about the Mets taking advantage of a rookie pitcher and rookie catcher making their big league debuts, but you might want to hide it a little more next time:
  • Memories:
  • Well that’s a fun headline – thanks, Michael:
  • 16% off a certified refurbished Echo Dot is a nice deal today at Amazon.
  • Over at TYL, there’s potential in young receiver Tanner Gentry (and the Bears need it), word on the Jerrell Freeman surgery and much more here.
  • written by

    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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