Rotation Glory, Darvish Next, Shutout Streak, Hader Smacked, and Other Bullets

The rains came and washed away Saturday soccer, so the kiddos are going to have to make due with playing inside today after being teased by great weather the past week, when we had them running around outside like maniacs every day. Maybe it’ll still clear up a bit this afternoon.

  • The Cubs’ rotation continued its absurd streak of success with Kyle Hendricks’ beautiful outing yesterday. It coincided with Jon Lester getting hurt, and although I tend to think it’s more about the talented arms in the rotation and the teams they were facing, I’ll never dump on a catcher who sees a nice narrative arc:
  • It’ll take Yu Darvish today to keep the good streak going (think he could be the fourth straight 7.0+ inning scoreless start?), and here’s a wonderful bit of humanity:
  • https://twitter.com/InfieldChatter/status/1119239226250235904

  • Oh, and about the scoreless streak for the starters – it wasn’t just the starters:
  • Wow. I had no idea it was THAT strong of a streak. Way to go, Brad Brach. (His three hits allowed in the 9th inning yesterday ended the scoreless streak.)
  • Oh, and one more wow:
  • It was a scary moment quickly forgotten in the game, and hopefully we never hear about it again:
  • Joe Maddon isn’t ready to say just what Addison Russell’s role will look like when he returns from his domestic violence suspension, or whether he’ll need additional at bats in the minors before returning (Cubs.com). There are still a couple weeks before those decisions will have to be made. He did say this, though: “The guys have been great. They’ve been great. But again, Addison being well, he’s still one of the best shortstops in the game.”
  • I don’t really have anything for this, but the picture was too … good? delicate? precious? captionable? to not share:
  • (Photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images)

  • The Brewers lost late to the Dodgers last night, as Kiké Hernandez did something off of Josh Hader that no one has ever done:
  • Even Hader can miss his spot badly on pitch 34, it seems. Also, not so sure about this headline …
  • https://twitter.com/BleacherNation/status/1119579204625022978

  • The Cardinals also lost yesterday, so, paired with the Cubs win, here’s what the middle of the NL Central looks like right now, which is pretty crazy when you consider how things started:
  • This guy is just going to keep teasing us:
  • Charging gear, fancy sheets, and more are your Deals of the Day at Amazon today.
  • Confidence:
  • 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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