Historic Offensive Explosion, Credit Where It’s Due, Bryant’s Evolving Attitude, and Other Cubs Bullets

September 16, 2019, by Brett Taylor Chicago Cubs

What a wild ride yesterday was, man. From the Cubs’ initial high to the Rizzo injury to the comeback to the explosion of offense to the Bears game being insane … and all with some very nice internet friends who are now real life friends. So that’s fun.

That was an incredible series of scoring, in case you were unaware:

The @Cubs are the fifth team in the modern era (since 1900) to score at least 14 runs in three straight games, joining the 1901 Pirates, 1928 Pirates, 1930 Cubs, and 1993 Tigers. #EverybodyIn

— Elias Sports Bureau (@EliasSports) September 15, 2019

The Cubs’ 47 runs were the most they’ve scored in a series since 1894, which was only barely baseball:

THIS JUST IN: The 1894 Cubs scored 48 runs vs. the Pirates in a three-game series from July 23-25 that year.

— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) September 15, 2019

The Cubs also homered 14 times in the series, which is a team record. And it also pushed them over the top to a new team record for homers in a season. So, anyway, yeah, there was a whole lot of offense this weekend.

Man, that Jonathan Lucroy homer was just obliterated. Lovely final run for another lovely offensive day
Also, hopefully Ian Happ is ready to go on a tear, because he might be the guy who gets the most looks at first base in Anthony Rizzo’s absence.

Credit to Joe Maddon for going with the very early pull of Jose Quintana yesterday when it seemed like he just wasn’t going to be able to right himself following the Anthony Rizzo injury. Who knows what happens if things get even worse that inning.
And to that end, credit to Tyler Chatwood for another quick fill-in, with three innings of one-run ball. If he’s still with the Cubs after this offseason, he’ll be back in consideration for a rotation spot next year. He’s been that good. (Of course, if he *doesn’t* get a rotation spot, then you would just hope he could continue to be this good as the swing guy.)
Pedro Strop pitched his third straight clean inning as Joe Maddon tries to get him some work in low-leverage spots, both to get the confidence back up, but also to see where he’s at as the playoffs approach.
Watches, shavers, and tools are among the Deals of the Day at Amazon today.
The Reds have flipped their rotation around this week, and it’s a huge break for the Cubs:

Cubs getting Gausman tonight instead of Gray. No Castillo at all this series. That could be huge. Gotta just take care of business no matter who is on the mound though. https://t.co/L08GqrdP3r

— Sahadev Sharma (@sahadevsharma) September 16, 2019

They need to not get owned by Kevin Gausman, though, or else it won’t feel like much of a break. With the Reds after their waiver claim, Gausman has quietly been fantastic … but as a reliever. So he might not be able to go more than a few innings, but they might be dominant innings. As a Red, he’s posted a 33.9% K rate and a mere 4.6% BB rate.
Great ready here from Jordan Bastian on Kris Bryant, who is his own toughest critic. I found this section on his injury issues to be particularly illuminating:

Q: Throughout your career, you’ve played through some injuries. Is it satisfying to get the results that you have, knowing the types of things you’ve tried to play through?

KB: “Of course. But, I think at the end of the day, nobody cares if you’re hurt or whatever. It’s just, if you’re out on the field, all that’s forgotten. And that’s a good thing. If I’m out there, I can play. But, yeah, I think after, especially this last week, it’s very satisfying when you speak up and say something and say something’s not right, and then you kind of make it feel better — and I wouldn’t say ‘fix it ‘— but make it feel a lot better. That’s very satisfying, because sometimes people are scared to say stuff or speak up. Or, you think you’re going to look a certain way. You think you’re not going to look tough. But, at the end of the day, you’ve got to do what’s best for the team and at that point I was hurting the team by not saying anything. I’m glad I did.”

Q: How much did you go through that last year, where you were playing through things without maybe speaking up?

KB: “Yeah, a little bit. But, I just think we’re all kind of stubborn in our own ways. Like I said, people look at you a certain way: ‘Oh, he’s not tough,’ or whatever. And I think there’s truth to that, but I just think when there’s times when you really can’t go, you just can’t do it. Like Javy. Obviously, there was something wrong with his hand. He wasn’t playing for six games. It was like, ‘Oh, there’s a fracture in there. He can’t play.’ Sometimes you’ve just got to do it, but I’m learning along the way. I’ve still got a lot to learn.”

I can only speak for myself, but when a guy sits down because he’s physically hurting and it’s negatively impacting his performance, I will definitely never call that guy not tough. I would call that guy smart and team-oriented. Glad to hear Bryant seeing it this way, too. It’s the right attitude.
Still very much enjoying this today: