So. This, uh, was not a great weekend to be a combo Cubs/Bears fan, eh? I still believe the Cubs are the class of the NL Central, and I still believe the Bears are turning a corner, but … my God. I do not have nuggets available, as mine were booted so far back up inside me this weekend that it will take several days for them to re-distend.
The Cubs beating the Brewers tonight would certainly help.
If that’s going to happen, the Cubs will have to figure out this new reimagined version of Wade Miley, who has a 2.12 ERA this season, with peripherals that suggest he should not be quite at that level. Yes, he’s getting a lot of soft contact and a lot of groundballs, but he’s giving up a ton of hard contact, doesn’t strike anyone out, and gives up a ton of line drives. The soft contact + groundball + no walk combo does make for a solid start, but not the ace he’s been pitching like. May the Cubs please play the part of Regression Stick tonight.
Mostly it’s figuring out his new cutter, which has made him brutal on righties this season after being abused by them in recent years. Every other pitch of his has been thoroughly average this year. Hopefully the fact that the Cubs just saw Miley in the last series against the Brewers will help.
Yup. Woof. I am still very angry about this egregious MLB decision:
And that doesn’t mention that Thursday was to be the Cubs’ first off-day in 24 days, which means they will be doing 30 scheduled games in 30 days, most on the road, and TWICE they will have had to fly to a road city for a single game in the midst of that stretch. Don’t tell me “other teams have to deal with travel, too,” because this is uniquely unfortunate, and you’re just being a trolling idiot if you don’t recognize that. Ditto folks who tell the Cubs to “suck it up” and such things; no one is saying boo-hoo-poor-athletes. We’re saying this schedule is terrible for trying to compete at the highest level, and it didn’t have to be this way (schedule the dang game for after the season!).
We’ll see what actually winds up happening, as there is a literal hurricane projected to hit the middle of the East Coast sometime this week, and – aside from hoping that everyone is safe and there isn’t serious damage – I hope that it cancels or relocates Thursday’s game before it happens.
If it is played, you should just expect right now that it’ll be Max Scherzer – again – pitching on normal rest. Twice in a four-game series, the Cubs will have to face Scherzer.
But hey. It certainly *is* true that if the Cubs come out of this week still in first place in the Central, it will be quite a feather in the cap of what this team is made of. Not a bad thing to know about yourself in September.
Today is clearly the “cool stuff” Deal of the Day time at Amazon: phones, tactical tools, security cameras, and smart lighting.
And it’s a 20% off day at Fanatics:
NEWSLETTER
