Getting Good at Getting Over Blowouts, Lester, El Mago, Uniforms, and Other Bullets

Hey, man. They had a five-game winning streak, and then lost a game. I’m not gonna get all sour about a blowout yesterday. Moving on today. I feel fine. I’m getting really good at getting over blowouts.

  • It kinda seems like the best thing anyone could come up with about yesterday’s lopsided loss is that it gave Joe Maddon an opportunity to get a few innings of rest for his regulars (Cubs.com): “That should be beneficial, hopefully. I wanted [Baez] out of there and Jason, the same way. Jason, playing center field, there’s a lot of running around out there and he gives you full effort all the time, too. So, those are the two I wanted out of there.”
  • Oh, I suppose the other good thing from yesterday was a couple flashes of premium El Mago:
  • Bonus Javy, as he takes a low and early toss to second base and still manages to coordinate the reception with the toe touch with the throw:
  • https://twitter.com/Cubs/status/1164972115889709056

  • As for the bad stuff yesterday, well, there was plenty. The bats did nothing for the second straight day, and Jon Lester gave up a boatload in just 4.1 innings. Could we say that he gave up only eight singles (and one homer), many of which were ground balls? That he didn’t exactly give up a ton of hard contact? Yes, yes, we could. And maybe I should. Because I’m not sure he was actually all that terrible yesterday. But he didn’t generate a lot of soft contact, and when you’re allowing so many balls into play, sometimes they’re going to string together for a lot of offense (we’ve seen this before with Lester the last few years). I wouldn’t say yesterday made me any more or less concerned about the rest of Lester’s season, for what it’s worth.
  • As you could see from his comments there, Lester feels physically fine, and isn’t too happy that he’s gotten totally blown up in 20% of his starts this year. But if he’s got an answer, he’s not sharing it publicly. Just have to execute pitches better and such and such. I know it all sounds cliche, but I’m not super interested in betting against him yet.
  • (Photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images)

  • Obviously I don’t care about the pitcher W/L stat, and a lot of this time was in the other league, but still, this is pretty wild:
  • Regarding the Players Weekend uniforms, which wound up looking exactly as disappointing as expected, this sounds right:
  • Air mattresses, patio torches, and more are your Deals of the Day at Amazon.
  • This tweet took me on a ride:
  • Look at this hero over here. Thanks, Tigers:
  • Miscellaneous good stuff:
  • 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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