As much as we talk about the baseball-related implications of Hurricane Florence, I do want to extend whatever positive energy/vibes/messages I can to folks in the very large area that could be affected. If any of you are in the path of the storm, I really hope you will be safe, and that efforts to help you recover afterwards are generous and smooth.
Back to baseball …
Kyle Hendricks, summing up how things are right now in the NL Central (ESPN): “They’re definitely coming for us. We can feel it.”
They would be the Brewers, who are now just a game behind the Cubs. I think it’s fair to be very disappointed in how the Cubs played against the Brewers over the past two weeks, because if the series had gone in the other direction, this division is probably locked up. But, as it stands, the Cubs now have only a slight edge, and are in the midst of playing 30 scheduled games in 30 days. Certainly, if they are ultimately able to fend off the blistering hot Brewers and win this division, it will be remembered as the Cubs overcoming a significant external challenge. That’s a story I hope to be telling in a couple weeks.
Not every Cub will be joining the team in DC for today’s one-gamer, as guys who won’t be used (like starter Cole Hamels) and guys who are battling injury issues (like Kyle Schwarber (back)) will just stay in Chicago in advance of this weekend’s series against the Reds. It’s a smart move, and hopefully at least those guys get to take advantage of an off-day.
The Brewers must be giddy about the Cubs’ month of games, as manager Craig Counsell could barely pay lip service to the difficulty involved (Cubs.com): “That’s tough scheduling, for sure. But it also means they’ve gotten a break at some point [earlier this season] with not playing and being able to get some rest through a segment of the schedule. Maybe not planned rest, but still got some rest. I’ve really found that the baseball schedule presents every team at points in the season with huge challenges. We had our challenges before and after the All-Star break, and it probably took a toll on us at some point. You recognize it as part of the schedule, that you’re going to have tough moments. Anytime you have to go to a city for one day, that’s not ideal.”
Yeah, it’s not ideal … and the Cubs have had to do it TWICE within a single 30 games in 30 days stretch! Sure, the Brewers had a really bad stretch earlier this year – 21 games in 20 days – but that’s 10 FEWER DAYS than this stretch for the Cubs, and it came before FOUR DAYS OFF IN A ROW. And how many times in that stretch did they have to go to a city for a single day and turnaround and play games in other cities on either end of that? ZERO. You don’t have to have sympathy for the Cubs in this situation, but GTFOH with “we all deal with tough stuff” BS.
Joe Maddon remains justifiably very upset about the Cubs having 30 consecutive scheduled game days. I would add that there’s a reason the CBA limits the number of consecutive days with a game in the schedule in the first place. These guys need a rest and re-charge if you want to see them at their best. And in a sport where milliseconds and millimeters can be the difference between no runs and four runs, it matters a whole lot. These guys are tough, and of course they’ll keep going out there and playing. It’s not a matter of them having the drive to play. It’s a matter of it not taking much for the other team to have an edge, because these are all professionals of the highest ability.
I think this may very well be a silent, hilarious protest about the scheduling ridiculousness of the Cubs’ last month:
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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NEWSLETTER
