Last Night Sure Didn’t Help the White Sox, Javy is a Switch-Hitter, Jeffress Has Fun, and Other Cubs Bits

I’ve been on a bit of an ‘Alien’ universe binge, kinda bouncing around among the movies. One gripe I have that is completely unfair, but I can never get past when you have series that spans decades in the real world, but moves around in time in their own space: the “technology” people use in, say, ‘Aliens’ looks hopelessly antiquated compared to the tech they use in ‘Prometheus’ or ‘Alien: Covenant,’ even though the events of those movies took place some 100 years in the past. Like I said, it’s an unfair gripe based on when the movies were made, but it kinda breaks the verisimilitude a bit when you watch the movies in quick succession. “We got wayyyyy better at deep space travel over the last 100 years, but we kinda forgot how to make digital displays that don’t look like ancient green screen Apple computers. It’s been a weird century!”

•   As big as last night’s win was for the Cubs, it was equally damaging for the White Sox. It was not only their sixth loss in a row (and eighth in their last ten), but it also was a missed opportunity to get back into a tie atop the AL Central standings, since the Twins lost. Meanwhile, the Indians won their sixth in a row, bringing them into a tie with the White Sox. They’ve already clinched a playoff spot, but now the White Sox have dropped from possibly being the second seed to being the seventh seed.

•   And the fan base and media aren’t handling it well:

•   Don’t Schadenfreude too hard, though, Cubs fans: with a magic number of one, the Cubs *could* still blow the division … just sayin’.

•   The White Sox GM mostly said the right thing here about Willson Contreras, but I’m not a huge fan of the choice of “showboat”, which feels like he’s saying Contreras was trying to show the White Sox up:

•   Like we discussed this morning, Contreras was pumped for his slumping team and that’s all he was showing. And he showed it well. Otherwise, Hahn’s message is correct.

•   Javy Báez is now a career* .500/.500/1.000 hitter with a 302 wRC+. *(batting left-handed)

•   Also, do you remember his other lefty appearance, and how he juuuuuuust got under one:

•   Bonus, funny look here from switch-hitter Ian Happ, who knows that switch-hitting is hard:

•   This was hilarious and random and awesome:

https://twitter.com/JMontana41/status/1309695221140262914

•   The Brewers have lost their top starting pitcher for the early part of the postseason at least, if they can sneak in this weekend:

•   Burnes wasn’t going to pitch again this weekend, so there’s no impact to the Cubs as far as clinching the Central vis a vis the Cardinals.

•   Speaking of injured pitchers trying to make it back in the postseason:

•   If Chatwood is throwing a bullpen today, and since he’s not being shut down for the year, it’s clearly possible he could be back by the time the Cubs would be in the NLDS or NLCS. Whether they would actually use him at that point remains to be seen, but he was included in the pool of players who are eligible to be put on the postseason rosters.

•   This is the first concrete step by MLB toward the minor league contraction we know is coming:

•   Javy Báez is still very popular:

•   Gross. ‘Parks and Rec’ was better anyway:

•   I know how Schwarber actually wound up in this position over top of the base, but I like to imagine other scenarios where something like this could possibly happen:

•   Massagers, kids gear, seat protectors, and “Tommy John” are among the Deals of the Day at Amazon. The last one is the clothing line, but it’s impossible not to read it as “oh hey, you can get 30% off Tommy John surgery right now, so get ahead of that UCL tear and save some cash!” #ad

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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