Hamels Turned It Around, Cubs Interfere a Crazy Amount, Yelich Looks Dumb, and Other Bullets

Apr 07, 2019

The Cubs won a game last night, and I’m still enjoying that. Win again today, and the Cubs will be the very best 3-6 team I’ve ever seen.

Cole Hamels completely turned his start around last night. Through two innings, not only was he already over 50 pitches with a couple runs in, he was also getting absolutely lit up in the contact department:

In case you were wondering, red is bad. pic.twitter.com/mLWOfYP3aw

— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) April 7, 2019

He finally started getting some non-hard contact after that, and also picked up the strikeouts. By the time his night was over, he’d gone 6.0, with 2 ER, 6 H, 0 BB, and 5 K, and he was doing this before his final pitch:

Cole Hamels, on the Brewers broadcast, just before his final pitch of the night: pic.twitter.com/YiXF1WaamT

— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) April 7, 2019

Oh, bonus, Hamels made Yelich do this, in what was, by far, his worst game of the year:

Exactly:

A message from JD to Christian Yelich (volume ⬆️): pic.twitter.com/uzEQDNsHK4

— Cubs Talk (@NBCSCubs) April 7, 2019

This was one of those things, when it happened again last night, that you just knew was absolutely crazy … but the question was how crazy. The answer? Very:

The Cubs are the first team in the live-ball era (since 1920) to commit a catcher's interference in three consecutive games.

— Stats By STATS (@StatsBySTATS) April 6, 2019

#Cubs: three catchers interference infractions in the last three games.

They hadn't had three in a single season since 1979.

It's April 6th.

— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) April 6, 2019

Speaking of very crazy:

Tyler Chatwood, 2018:

5.30 ERA, 5.60 FIP, -0.4 WAR

Entire Cubs Pitching Staff, 2019:

7.87 ERA, 6.93 FIP, -1.1 WAR

—

If the entire Cubs pitching staff had been 2018 Tyler Chatwood so far, they would have performed significantly better.

— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) April 7, 2019

In case you missed this part of Theo Epstein’s comments yesterday, it kind of fell into the background of the bigger picture stuff:

Theo on Carl Edwards Jr.: "Once he really takes control of his mental game, he's gonna be as good as anybody."

— Tony Andracki (@TonyAndracki23) April 6, 2019

I think it’s interesting to see Epstein confirming what it seemed like from the outside: physically, Edwards is just fine, and even mechanically, he’s just fine. The only thing standing between him and being able to deploy his ridiculous stuff consistently and successfully is what goes on in his head, especially when things go a little wrong. How you best deal with that and get a guy to get out of his own head out there … well, get on it, Mental Skills program.

One of the best moments last night was a very quiet one: with runners on second and third and one out, in the later innings, the Brewers were clearly pitching around Javy Baez, with well-placed breaking pitches just off the outer edge. And, in that moment, Baez *let* them pitch around him, accepting his walk. That’s a developing superstar right there.

This seems very sustainable:

Milwaukee Brewers are now 7-2 with a 0 run differential.

— Josh Nelson (@soxmachine_josh) April 7, 2019

Michael got a chance to take in some of the new amenities at Wrigley Field:

Getting a closer look at some of Wrigley’s changes today. I’ll thread it all.

First up: The W Club pic.twitter.com/iGlIgyMfUv

— Michael Cerami (@Michael_Cerami) April 6, 2019

Makers Mark Barrel room. pic.twitter.com/LObShrh2R5

— Michael Cerami (@Michael_Cerami) April 6, 2019

https://twitter.com/Michael_Cerami/status/1114603886734708737

New bathrooms, same old troughs pic.twitter.com/CD2FN9gXNq

— Michael Cerami (@Michael_Cerami) April 6, 2019

Matcha green tea, which is awesome, is among the Deals of the Day at Amazon today.

And it’s a clearance day at Fanatics, today only:

TODAY is a clearance day at Fanatics, so jump on this while you can: https://t.co/KfiEacA7o4 pic.twitter.com/yOnwofFWeQ

— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) April 7, 2019

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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