Worst Home-Road Split in Franchise History, Big Z Hits 97, and Other Bullets

Aug 17, 2019

For reasons that I will perhaps later regret, I doubled down on my usual intake of caffeine this morning, and I am about to lift my car over my head and/or doing a standing jump onto the roof. BRB.

There is nothing new to share on the Cubs’ home/road split, other than to note how perverse it is, and ponder to what extent it is now in the players’ heads:

Update:
The #Cubs currently have the biggest home/road win percentage differential in franchise history.
Home Road Diff.
2019 41-19 (.683) 23-39 (.371) .312
1933 56-23 (.709) 30-45 (.400) .309

— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) August 17, 2019

One more thing to make you shake your head in profound disappointment:

Quintana, Darvish, Hendricks.
20 innings. 2 runs. 12 hit. 25Ks. #Cubs lost all 3 games.

— Silvy (@WaddleandSilvy) August 17, 2019

Oh wait, one more:

The Cubs have 10 blown saves since the all star break, most in the NL.

— Jesse Rogers (@ESPNChiCubs) August 17, 2019

Oh, wait wait, I’ve got one more of my own: the Cubs have been walked off on an incredible EIGHT TIMES this year, including FOUR TIMES in the last three weeks. That’s a whole lot of maximizing pain.

Although I don’t blame him for the losses in an individual capacity, I am having trouble getting past the thought that if David Bote simply makes a play on a bouncing ball each of the last two nights, the Cubs win both games. I’m sure he’s thinking about it, too, and here’s hoping the mental skills crew makes sure he doesn’t linger on it.

I don’t know what happened with Bote’s defense from last year (looked fantastic, especially at third) to this year (looks tentative and frequently terrible), but that’ll definitely be something to work on this offseason if he’s going to stay a part of this club as a utility guy. Kind of an important part of the gig.

Is he available to close today:

38-year-old Carlos Zambrano touched 97 tonight for @TheChicagoDogs in winning effort.@PitchingNinja pic.twitter.com/N9GsQzkJ8V

— Steve Schuster (@growcasting) August 17, 2019

I think it’s interesting that the Cubs are already testing out Ben Zobrist coming off the bench in a game, and it makes you wonder if they think he could be close to ready after this weekend:

Ben Zobrist pinch-hit in the sixth and remained in the game at second base. He is 1-for-1 with a walk tonight.

— IowaCubsGameDay (@IowaCubsGameDay) August 17, 2019

I wrote about the “FIRE MADDON” cries earlier this morning, and Kyle Hendricks seems to underscore my point:

Hendricks’ response to fire-Maddon Twitter crowd: “It’s just crazy. It’s unfounded. … It looks a lot easier on the couch. … [a managing decision] is never 100 percent slam dunk. You’ve just got to play the odds and trust your guys can make the pitches. That’s not up to him.”
— Gordon Wittenmyer (@GDubCub) August 17, 2019

Heads up, the new Echo Dot is 40% off today at Amazon, just $29.99.

META: I want to drop this note a few times over the coming weeks/months, because you regulars deserve a heads up on the transition. At some point, probably in the baseball offseason, we’re going to change the home page at BN to include all three of the sports we cover (baseball, football, basketball). HOWEVER, if you don’t want to go to that page, no worries: there will be a Cubs page, just like the current home page, and you can just update your bookmark URL (it’ll be like bn dot com slash cubs or something). For you, everything will be the same on that page – just a different address. Oh, and I’m still the main Cubs guy and all that jazz. It really is a fairly insignificant change for folks who just dig the Cubs stuff, but I want us to better integrate all of our coverage on the home page. That’s the gist. OK. So there’s your early heads up. More when we actually get close to the URL shift.

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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