9/9 Cubs (Lester) @ Cardinals (Martinez) 12:45 PM CST, CSN

[Schwarber Fan]

Really would help if the Pirates lost tonight. I know they've struggled against Milwaukee but I expect them to sweep em at PNC. We'll probably drop 1 in Philly.

 

i realize the irony in that i'm saying this (but i expected the sweep after 2 wins and going into the 8th with a 2 run lead), but you should never expect any team to sweep anyone. stop saying that.

 

and why the hell would you expect the pirates to sweep milwaukee but us to lose to philly? purely home/road is your reasoning?

 

thanks for allowing me to shift my anger elsewhere tho

 

Pittsburgh is a World Series caliber club when they play at home. Not so much on the road. Still, their futility at Miller Park is a head-scratcher.

 

As for the Cubs, Haren/Hendricks will be starting 2 of the 3 so I expect one of them to give up a bunch. Hopefully our dongs prevail.

[Aaron_Kennelly]

probably the most irrational thing about any of this is me holding out hope for something that has under a 5% chance of happening

 

It's not irrational at all. I think we would have been a bit above 5% with a win today, too. And as much as the numbers tell more truth than your eyes, and momentum probably isn't really a thing... it just felt like something was happening. Like, ok, it's still 5.5, but we are donging all over and they are tumbling to the finish line. And 5% isn't nothing, either.

[squally1313]

Really would help if the Pirates lost tonight. I know they've struggled against Milwaukee but I expect them to sweep em at PNC. We'll probably drop 1 in Philly.

 

i realize the irony in that i'm saying this (but i expected the sweep after 2 wins and going into the 8th with a 2 run lead), but you should never expect any team to sweep anyone. stop saying that.

 

and why the hell would you expect the pirates to sweep milwaukee but us to lose to philly? purely home/road is your reasoning?

 

thanks for allowing me to shift my anger elsewhere tho

 

Pittsburgh is a World Series caliber club when they play at home. Not so much on the road. Still, their futility at Miller Park is a head-scratcher.

 

As for the Cubs, Haren/Hendricks will be starting 2 of the 3 so I expect one of them to give up a bunch. Hopefully our dongs prevail.

 

Didn't take long for these types of posts to start popping back up.

[Guest]

I'm rooting for the Pirates so [expletive] hard now. I want the Cubs to face the Cardinals in the WC game something fierce.

 

stop this silliness

 

let's just get that stupid home game so i can at least go to one game, because the pirates are way better at home, and because [expletive] that giant PNC outfield (esp with our OFers vs theirs).

[Sammy Sofa]

Really would help if the Pirates lost tonight. I know they've struggled against Milwaukee but I expect them to sweep em at PNC. We'll probably drop 1 in Philly.

 

i realize the irony in that i'm saying this (but i expected the sweep after 2 wins and going into the 8th with a 2 run lead), but you should never expect any team to sweep anyone. stop saying that.

 

and why the hell would you expect the pirates to sweep milwaukee but us to lose to philly? purely home/road is your reasoning?

 

thanks for allowing me to shift my anger elsewhere tho

 

Pittsburgh is a World Series caliber club when they play at home. Not so much on the road. Still, their futility at Miller Park is a head-scratcher.

 

As for the Cubs, Haren/Hendricks will be starting 2 of the 3 so I expect one of them to give up a bunch. Hopefully our dongs prevail.

 

The Phillies are garbage; you really can't see Haren and Hendricks having the type of success they've had a LOT of this year against a team that bad?

[Aaron_Kennelly]

Yeah it sucks for what it would have meant to sweep the Cardinals down there. But I feel like a lot of you were yelling at people for being worried about only being up around 5.5 games in the wildcard, and this was at least a week ago now.

 

Even with a win today, and even with a sweep next weekend, we'd still have to make up another 2.5 games on a team playing at a .600+ winning percentage. It would have been fun, but this game wouldn't have pushed it out of "still a huge long shot" category.

 

The problem was that back then, we were saying, it doesn't really [expletive] matter if it is a 5.5 game lead right now, because anything can happen over the next two months. And we were right. The Giants fell completely off the map. It was just silly to think, "Oh this is our only option right now."

 

Also, the Cubs were in the midst of a huge dongfest and the Giants have a shitty rotation, and it wasn't hard to envision us building upon that lead based off of the sheer fact that we are a better team.

[Guest]

Really would help if the Pirates lost tonight. I know they've struggled against Milwaukee but I expect them to sweep em at PNC. We'll probably drop 1 in Philly.

 

i realize the irony in that i'm saying this (but i expected the sweep after 2 wins and going into the 8th with a 2 run lead), but you should never expect any team to sweep anyone. stop saying that.

 

and why the hell would you expect the pirates to sweep milwaukee but us to lose to philly? purely home/road is your reasoning?

 

thanks for allowing me to shift my anger elsewhere tho

 

Pittsburgh is a World Series caliber club when they play at home. Not so much on the road. Still, their futility at Miller Park is a head-scratcher.

 

As for the Cubs, Haren/Hendricks will be starting 2 of the 3 so I expect one of them to give up a bunch. Hopefully our dongs prevail.

 

the cubs are a world series caliber club everywhere

 

so are the pirates

[Guest]

Yeah it sucks for what it would have meant to sweep the Cardinals down there. But I feel like a lot of you were yelling at people for being worried about only being up around 5.5 games in the wildcard, and this was at least a week ago now.

 

Even with a win today, and even with a sweep next weekend, we'd still have to make up another 2.5 games on a team playing at a .600+ winning percentage. It would have been fun, but this game wouldn't have pushed it out of "still a huge long shot" category.

 

The problem was that back then, we were saying, it doesn't really [expletive] matter if it is a 5.5 game lead right now, because anything can happen over the next two months. And we were right. The Giants fell completely off the map. It was just silly to think, "Oh this is our only option right now."

 

Also, the Cubs were in the midst of a huge dongfest and the Giants have a [expletive] rotation, and it wasn't hard to envision us building upon that lead based off of the sheer fact that we are a better team.

 

exactly

[Guest]

i'm sure the square footage isn't even THAT different but i can't help but visualize the PNC outfield being like 3x the size of ours

[squally1313]

Yeah it sucks for what it would have meant to sweep the Cardinals down there. But I feel like a lot of you were yelling at people for being worried about only being up around 5.5 games in the wildcard, and this was at least a week ago now.

 

Even with a win today, and even with a sweep next weekend, we'd still have to make up another 2.5 games on a team playing at a .600+ winning percentage. It would have been fun, but this game wouldn't have pushed it out of "still a huge long shot" category.

 

The problem was that back then, we were saying, it doesn't really [expletive] matter if it is a 5.5 game lead right now, because anything can happen over the next two months. And we were right. The Giants fell completely off the map. It was just silly to think, "Oh this is our only option right now."

 

Also, the Cubs were in the midst of a huge dongfest and the Giants have a [expletive] rotation, and it wasn't hard to envision us building upon that lead based off of the sheer fact that we are a better team.

 

I think a lot of the negative guys on the board got a lot of crap for obsessively following the Giants or the Nationals score a couple weeks ago when they had about the same percentage chance to catch us as we did going into today of catching the Cardinals.

 

If you think the Cubs locked down a playoff spot a week or two ago, then you can't also argue we had a realistic shot at this division.

[Aaron_Kennelly]

Yeah it sucks for what it would have meant to sweep the Cardinals down there. But I feel like a lot of you were yelling at people for being worried about only being up around 5.5 games in the wildcard, and this was at least a week ago now.

 

Even with a win today, and even with a sweep next weekend, we'd still have to make up another 2.5 games on a team playing at a .600+ winning percentage. It would have been fun, but this game wouldn't have pushed it out of "still a huge long shot" category.

 

The problem was that back then, we were saying, it doesn't really [expletive] matter if it is a 5.5 game lead right now, because anything can happen over the next two months. And we were right. The Giants fell completely off the map. It was just silly to think, "Oh this is our only option right now."

 

Also, the Cubs were in the midst of a huge dongfest and the Giants have a [expletive] rotation, and it wasn't hard to envision us building upon that lead based off of the sheer fact that we are a better team.

 

I think a lot of the negative guys on the board got a lot of crap for obsessively following the Giants or the Nationals score a couple weeks ago when they had about the same percentage chance to catch us as we did going into today of catching the Cardinals.

 

If you think the Cubs locked down a playoff spot a week or two ago, then you can't also argue we had a realistic shot at this division.

 

I'm arguing that you can scoreboard watch with a lot more efficacy with three weeks left than with five or six weeks left. It was just silly to be hung up on it back then. It wasn't that bad things couldn't happen; it's just that it was silly to worry about it then.

[Little Slide Rooter]

I ain't even mad. We aside from 2 innings, we owned the set. Time to move on and defile the carcass of the Philadelphia Phillies

[squally1313]

Yeah it sucks for what it would have meant to sweep the Cardinals down there. But I feel like a lot of you were yelling at people for being worried about only being up around 5.5 games in the wildcard, and this was at least a week ago now.

 

Even with a win today, and even with a sweep next weekend, we'd still have to make up another 2.5 games on a team playing at a .600+ winning percentage. It would have been fun, but this game wouldn't have pushed it out of "still a huge long shot" category.

 

The problem was that back then, we were saying, it doesn't really [expletive] matter if it is a 5.5 game lead right now, because anything can happen over the next two months. And we were right. The Giants fell completely off the map. It was just silly to think, "Oh this is our only option right now."

 

Also, the Cubs were in the midst of a huge dongfest and the Giants have a [expletive] rotation, and it wasn't hard to envision us building upon that lead based off of the sheer fact that we are a better team.

 

I think a lot of the negative guys on the board got a lot of crap for obsessively following the Giants or the Nationals score a couple weeks ago when they had about the same percentage chance to catch us as we did going into today of catching the Cardinals.

 

If you think the Cubs locked down a playoff spot a week or two ago, then you can't also argue we had a realistic shot at this division.

 

I'm arguing that you can scoreboard watch with a lot more efficacy with three weeks left than with five or six weeks left. It was just silly to be hung up on it back then. It wasn't that bad things couldn't happen; it's just that it was silly to worry about it then.

 

I get that. Back of the envelope math...I saw the Cubs needing to go about 23-7 (including this last winning streak) to close out the year to realistically pass the Cardinals (including another sweep). If you think the Cubs, or any team in baseball is capable of going through August and September like that...awesome.

 

It's a really frustrating loss because it checked all the boxes of a frustrating Cardinals win. Their 2015 way of leaving guys on base, and their years long habit of some relative no name coming through with a clutch hit. But outside of momentum or morale, I don't think it changes our position much.

[Guest]

Yeah it sucks for what it would have meant to sweep the Cardinals down there. But I feel like a lot of you were yelling at people for being worried about only being up around 5.5 games in the wildcard, and this was at least a week ago now.

 

Even with a win today, and even with a sweep next weekend, we'd still have to make up another 2.5 games on a team playing at a .600+ winning percentage. It would have been fun, but this game wouldn't have pushed it out of "still a huge long shot" category.

 

The problem was that back then, we were saying, it doesn't really [expletive] matter if it is a 5.5 game lead right now, because anything can happen over the next two months. And we were right. The Giants fell completely off the map. It was just silly to think, "Oh this is our only option right now."

 

Also, the Cubs were in the midst of a huge dongfest and the Giants have a [expletive] rotation, and it wasn't hard to envision us building upon that lead based off of the sheer fact that we are a better team.

 

I think a lot of the negative guys on the board got a lot of crap for obsessively following the Giants or the Nationals score a couple weeks ago when they had about the same percentage chance to catch us as we did going into today of catching the Cardinals.

 

If you think the Cubs locked down a playoff spot a week or two ago, then you can't also argue we had a realistic shot at this division.

 

I'm arguing that you can scoreboard watch with a lot more efficacy with three weeks left than with five or six weeks left. It was just silly to be hung up on it back then. It wasn't that bad things couldn't happen; it's just that it was silly to worry about it then.

 

The Cubs also have/had a lot more control over catching the Cardinals than the Giants or Nats do. Prior to this week they were down 8 games in the loss column but had 6 head to head matchups, that's a lot different than being down 8-9 in the loss column with no head to head.

[Aaron_Kennelly]

Yeah it sucks for what it would have meant to sweep the Cardinals down there. But I feel like a lot of you were yelling at people for being worried about only being up around 5.5 games in the wildcard, and this was at least a week ago now.

 

Even with a win today, and even with a sweep next weekend, we'd still have to make up another 2.5 games on a team playing at a .600+ winning percentage. It would have been fun, but this game wouldn't have pushed it out of "still a huge long shot" category.

 

The problem was that back then, we were saying, it doesn't really [expletive] matter if it is a 5.5 game lead right now, because anything can happen over the next two months. And we were right. The Giants fell completely off the map. It was just silly to think, "Oh this is our only option right now."

 

Also, the Cubs were in the midst of a huge dongfest and the Giants have a [expletive] rotation, and it wasn't hard to envision us building upon that lead based off of the sheer fact that we are a better team.

 

I think a lot of the negative guys on the board got a lot of crap for obsessively following the Giants or the Nationals score a couple weeks ago when they had about the same percentage chance to catch us as we did going into today of catching the Cardinals.

 

If you think the Cubs locked down a playoff spot a week or two ago, then you can't also argue we had a realistic shot at this division.

 

I'm arguing that you can scoreboard watch with a lot more efficacy with three weeks left than with five or six weeks left. It was just silly to be hung up on it back then. It wasn't that bad things couldn't happen; it's just that it was silly to worry about it then.

 

I get that. Back of the envelope math...I saw the Cubs needing to go about 23-7 (including this last winning streak) to close out the year to realistically pass the Cardinals (including another sweep). If you think the Cubs, or any team in baseball is capable of going through August and September like that...awesome.

 

It's a really frustrating loss because it checked all the boxes of a frustrating Cardinals win. Their 2015 way of leaving guys on base, and their years long habit of some relative no name coming through with a clutch hit. But outside of momentum or morale, I don't think it changes our position much.

 

Yeah, and it wasn't a realistic goal until we were well on our way to doing just that. Six days ago it seemed a near certainty. Three days ago, it seemed incredibly unlikely. An hour ago, it seemed like, well maybe.

[Aaron_Kennelly]

The Cubs also have/had a lot more control over catching the Cardinals than the Giants or Nats do. Prior to this week they were down 8 games in the loss column but had 6 head to head matchups, that's a lot different than being down 8-9 in the loss column with no head to head.

 

Yep. The faint hope was in, "Well, we could just do it ourselves and knock six games off that lead head-to-head."

[Bryants Disco Ball]

I was cheering for the Giants and Nats to both lose and lose a lot, and I'm still not ashamed of it.

[Guest]

The Cubs also have/had a lot more control over catching the Cardinals than the Giants or Nats do. Prior to this week they were down 8 games in the loss column but had 6 head to head matchups, that's a lot different than being down 8-9 in the loss column with no head to head.

 

Yep. The faint hope was in, "Well, we could just do it ourselves and knock six games off that lead head-to-head."

 

mainly because we are enough of a wrecking crew to do it

[Guest]

I was cheering for the Giants and Nats to both lose and lose a lot, and I'm still not ashamed of it.

 

i don't care about people who did that other than i think it was funny because they are not as good as us and weren't going to make up the ground

 

only time i had a real issue was then they were playing the cardinals

[squally1313]

The Cubs also have/had a lot more control over catching the Cardinals than the Giants or Nats do. Prior to this week they were down 8 games in the loss column but had 6 head to head matchups, that's a lot different than being down 8-9 in the loss column with no head to head.

 

Yep. The faint hope was in, "Well, we could just do it ourselves and knock six games off that lead head-to-head."

 

So this reaction was essentially coming unless we swept all 6 games? If not today, then realistically some time next week?

 

I love this team and wholeheartedly believe we belong in the playoffs. But I was going to need to see us get a lot closer than winning today to think we had a realistic shot at the division.

[Guest]

The Cubs also have/had a lot more control over catching the Cardinals than the Giants or Nats do. Prior to this week they were down 8 games in the loss column but had 6 head to head matchups, that's a lot different than being down 8-9 in the loss column with no head to head.

 

Yep. The faint hope was in, "Well, we could just do it ourselves and knock six games off that lead head-to-head."

 

So this reaction was essentially coming unless we swept all 6 games? If not today, then realistically some time next week?

 

I love this team and wholeheartedly believe we belong in the playoffs. But I was going to need to see us get a lot closer than winning today to think we had a realistic shot at the division.

 

Well losing today is a triple whammy of sorts, Cubs lose, Cardinals win, and one less head to head game to close the gap. That combined with blowing a late lead makes the reaction a bit more intense than if they had lost a reasonable shot by losing 3 of 4 to the Phillies or something like that.

 

Put another way, if the Cubs had won today, all they'd have to have done is been 3 games better than the Cardinals over a 20 game span to have winning the division be entirely in their control(with that last series at Wrigley). Now the other Cardinals series isn't games 160-162 so the comparison isn't 100% true, but you can see how that seems like a reasonable hill to try to climb. Instead, now they need to be 5 games better in those 20 games, which requires a bit of a more pronounced Cubs streak or Cardinals collapse.

[jersey cubs fan]

The Cubs also have/had a lot more control over catching the Cardinals than the Giants or Nats do. Prior to this week they were down 8 games in the loss column but had 6 head to head matchups, that's a lot different than being down 8-9 in the loss column with no head to head.

 

Yep. The faint hope was in, "Well, we could just do it ourselves and knock six games off that lead head-to-head."

 

So this reaction was essentially coming unless we swept all 6 games? If not today, then realistically some time next week?

 

I love this team and wholeheartedly believe we belong in the playoffs. But I was going to need to see us get a lot closer than winning today to think we had a realistic shot at the division.

 

If they won today and you didn't think they had a realistic chance of winning the division you would be a weirdo that does not understand what realistic means.

[squally1313]

The Cubs also have/had a lot more control over catching the Cardinals than the Giants or Nats do. Prior to this week they were down 8 games in the loss column but had 6 head to head matchups, that's a lot different than being down 8-9 in the loss column with no head to head.

 

Yep. The faint hope was in, "Well, we could just do it ourselves and knock six games off that lead head-to-head."

 

So this reaction was essentially coming unless we swept all 6 games? If not today, then realistically some time next week?

 

I love this team and wholeheartedly believe we belong in the playoffs. But I was going to need to see us get a lot closer than winning today to think we had a realistic shot at the division.

 

Well losing today is a triple whammy of sorts, Cubs lose, Cardinals win, and one less head to head game to close the gap. That combined with blowing a late lead makes the reaction a bit more intense than if they had lost a reasonable shot by losing 3 of 4 to the Phillies or something like that.

 

Put another way, if the Cubs had won today, all they'd have to have done is been 3 games better than the Cardinals over a 20 game span to have winning the division be entirely in their control(with that last series at Wrigley). Now the other Cardinals series isn't games 160-162 so the comparison isn't 100% true, but you can see how that seems like a reasonable hill to try to climb. Instead, now they need to be 5 games better in those 20 games, which requires a bit of a more pronounced Cubs streak or Cardinals collapse.

 

I get what you guys are saying and I would love it to happen as much as anyone. Just seemed like a somewhat arbitrary (or incorrect) place to draw the realistic/not realistic line. Plus I'm not generally a fan of getting more upset at a loss because of the wins before it (in the regular season), which is essentially what happened here.

 

It's just bad luck being in this division. We'll be the ones running away with it next year, and for years after that.

[Guest]

 

I get what you guys are saying and I would love it to happen as much as anyone. Just seemed like a somewhat arbitrary (or incorrect) place to draw the realistic/not realistic line. Plus I'm not generally a fan of getting more upset at a loss because of the wins before it (in the regular season), which is essentially what happened here.

 

It's just bad luck being in this division. We'll be the ones running away with it next year, and for years after that.

 

but the wins before it directly increased the significance

[jersey cubs fan]

Plus I'm not generally a fan of getting more upset at a loss because of the wins before it (in the regular season), which is essentially what happened here.

 

But it's not just failing to sweep, it's losing that sweep in a game with a late lead that they had many more chances to put away.