So Good to Have Bryant Back, Hendricks Feels Locked In, and Other Bullets

Sep 02, 2018

I’m not entirely sure The Mom knows I got a tattoo during the Blogathon. We’re visiting her today, and my short sleeves don’t cover it up, so … we’ll see how this goes.

Last night’s win was number 80 on the year for the Cubs, which didn’t come last year until September 14 (and the Cubs still won 92 games). It was September 8 in 2015, and that team won 97 games. With 27 games left, the Cubs could go 10-17 and they’d still hit the 90-win plateau (and the Cardinals would have to go 15-11 to pass the Cubs).

September just began and the #Cubs already have 80 wins! #EverybodyIn

A post shared by Bleacher Nation (@bleachernation) on Sep 1, 2018 at 7:07pm PDT

Kris Bryant will start in right field today, helping to fill in for the injured Jason Heyward and also to create more space for bats in the infield. Even as a superstar returning from the DL, he knows his role on a team like this:

Bryant will make 28th start in RF. #Cubs need to fill in with Heyward on DL. Bryant: "I'm sure there will be some moving around and stuff like that. That's just who we are. None of us really have a set position which is so cool about everybody here. Nobody's selfish"
— Carrie Muskat (@CarrieMuskat) September 2, 2018

Bryant notched a couple hits in his return last night, including a scalded double down the line to left, on which you can see the two-handed finish to his swing:

As for the shoulder, Bryant says it feels good (Cubs.com): “My shoulder feels good, strong. I’ve taken all the precautions to make sure it does feel good, which is taking a month off and tweaking some things here and there. I don’t know if he’s going to give me a day off because of the shoulder or because of feeling physically tired, but my shoulder feels good.”

As he has for so many second half starts now, Kyle Hendricks plainly just looked like Kyle Hendricks last night – working at the edges, sequencing batters into bad guesses and bad swings, and getting groundballs to help get out of trouble. He tells Cubs.com this is as good as he’s felt this year: “This is as locked in as I’ve felt for the most part. I’m making good pitches and putting together good sequences. Everything starts with fastball command for me. It’s just been getting better and better. Today, it was good from the start. My curveball has been coming along better and better and I’m using it more.”

A Phillies reliever had a card with him that he’s apparently taken to the mound with him every game this year, but last night Joe West made him get rid of it, as he does:

That glorious feeling when everyone is looking at you. pic.twitter.com/Q5qk1gVOVe

— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) September 2, 2018

Here was West’s explanation, which is flat out incorrect:

Joe West cited the rule that a pitcher shall have no" foreign substance" on him, hence he took the cheat sheet away. League is going to have to look into it, West said. He hasn't had a pitcher do it but knows others use them.
— Jesse Rogers (@ESPNChiCubs) September 2, 2018

Speaking of explanations, apparently we’ll soon get an explanation from Ian Happ on this:

My guess is that Happ can’t explain while the team is still in Pennsylvania, you know, for jurisdictional purposes.

Among today’s Deals of the Day at Amazon, lots of tailgating stuff – tis the season.

Huge Labor Day sale at Fanatics on all kinds of clearance stuff, so make sure you check out the Cubs gear here.

HEADS up, it's a Labor Day clearance sale at Fanatics – tons of additional Cubs gear: https://t.co/klXLFsfSJg pic.twitter.com/5fbhU6dqn3
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) September 2, 2018

And if you missed the enormously huge news in the Bears world yesterday, they pulled off the equivalent of trading for Bryce Harper and then signing him to a monster contract:

https://twitter.com/BN_Bears/status/1035936707542044673

New Bear Khalil Mack is Now the Highest-Paid Defensive Player in NFL History https://t.co/HtBrI4MHKc pic.twitter.com/cgeiWM7KPo

— Bleacher Nation Bears (@BN_Bears) September 1, 2018

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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So Good to Have Bryant Back, Hendricks Feels Locked In, and Other Bullets

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