10/30 World Series Game 5 Cleveland (Bauer) @ Cubs (Lester) 7:00 CDT Fox

[UMFan83]

At the zoo this morning. Have seen at least 5-6 people with sox hats on and I swear they have horsefeathers eating grins on their faces as they pass me wearing a Cubs hat.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Ran into Pedro Gomez outside of Wrigley Field this morning. He said advanced analytics by playoff teams showed the Cubs have trouble hitting off speed stuff, especially curves. The Dodgers knew it but couldn't execute. The Indians know it and so far have worked it to near perfection.

 

With that said, he really likes the Cubs chances tonight.

 

This is my least favorite of all the nonsense reasons trying to explain the Cubs offense being inconsistent. You know what makes you really inconsistent? When half your games have Kershaw/Hill/Jansen or Kluber/Miller/Allen throwing 99% of the innings. Even if you want to misuse pitch value stuff from Fangraphs the Cubs were middle of the road against curveballs. Also, the Indians starter who throws the most curves? Bauer, the starter the Cubs knocked around. So please, spare me the theories that teams unlocked the secret sauce to stopping the Cubs offense. The answer is be really good and/or make really good pitches, and that answers the question for every baseball team ever.

 

EDIT: This is not directed at you, Cubfanintheknow, I know you're just a messenger here. It's just been several weeks of various folks trying to find a reason in pitch values and you don't need to go that deep.

[Cubswin11]

Just got tickets for the game tonight. Let's roll MF'ers

[davell]

There's only one thing left to do......Win the whole horsefeathering thing.

[Cubfanintheknow]

Ran into Pedro Gomez outside of Wrigley Field this morning. He said advanced analytics by playoff teams showed the Cubs have trouble hitting off speed stuff, especially curves. The Dodgers knew it but couldn't execute. The Indians know it and so far have worked it to near perfection.

 

With that said, he really likes the Cubs chances tonight.

 

This is my least favorite of all the nonsense reasons trying to explain the Cubs offense being inconsistent. You know what makes you really inconsistent? When half your games have Kershaw/Hill/Jansen or Kluber/Miller/Allen throwing 99% of the innings. Even if you want to misuse pitch value stuff from Fangraphs the Cubs were middle of the road against curveballs. Also, the Indians starter who throws the most curves? Bauer, the starter the Cubs knocked around. So please, spare me the theories that teams unlocked the secret sauce to stopping the Cubs offense. The answer is be really good and/or make really good pitches, and that answers the question for every baseball team ever.

 

EDIT: This is not directed at you, Cubfanintheknow, I know you're just a messenger here. It's just been several weeks of various folks trying to find a reason in pitch values and you don't need to go that deep.

 

No offense taken. It's been that kind of series. :twisted:

[WrigleyField 22]

Lets send some useless Indians gear to Africa.

[Agony and Ivy]

My buddy had to drive back to Louisville because he has jury duty so I'll be sitting in my room ordering shitty over priced room service nachos. These jerks better win.

[trushar]

My tank is empty too, but when we come back and win this in 7 it will all have been worth it. How else would they do it?

 

Time to get back to enjoying this ride, folks.

 

Let's horsefeathering go CUBS!

[Laura]

I was super annoyed Friday night at the lack of scoring because it's a game the Cubs should have won. Yesterday ... not so surprised, I didn't like the matchup on paper and after seeing Kluber slice & dice in Cleveland. Tonight the Cubs should get the W and return to Cleveland to get Babe Schwarber back in the lineup.

 

And yeah, they were talking up 'the Cubs can't hit curveballs' on the Score, I think. The Cubs will hit curveballs tonight.

 

Go Cubs!

 

Go Cubs!

[UMFan83]

Fun fact: tonight will be the last time there will be bullpens on the field at Wrigley Field.

 

No more fun like this:

 

http://www.chicagonow.com/cubs-den/files/2011/06/krueter-hat-brawl.jpg

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Fun fact: tonight will be the last time there will be bullpens on the field at Wrigley Field

for reals? I thought for some reason they scrapped that idea

[Perd]

This ish is going 7.

[trushar]

Need more excitement in here!

 

Cubs will win a World Series game at wrigley tonight!

[UMFan83]

Fun fact: tonight will be the last time there will be bullpens on the field at Wrigley Field

for reals? I thought for some reason they scrapped that idea

 

No it was just delayed one offseason

[Thrilho]

Win this one and you get Schwarbs back

[Bote McBoteface]

The Cubs have to win 2 games that they are heavily favored to win, followed by 1 toss up where we'll have the better team and a possibly Cy Young winner going against a tired pitching staff with "choke" story lines doing their circulation.

 

It actually sounds kind of easy. Go Cubs.

[Rex Buckingham]

The Chicago Cubs won 103 regular season games this year. A total exceeded by only 10 teams in the past 62 years. This total was 8 more games than any other team in the league this year, and they didn't even get to finish one of their games.

 

The Cubs advanced through the NLDS and NLCS without ever facing elimination.

 

The Cubs have 18 separate winning streaks of 3 games or more. # of those streaks were at least 6 games long. 1 was 11 games long.

 

Trevor Bauer sucks on regular rest, the Cubs will rock him on short rest.

 

Josh Tomlin's black magic will not work on short rest and with Kyle Schwarber added to the lineup.

 

Kyle Hendricks on full rest is better than Corey Kluber on short rest for a second time with Kyle Schwarber in the lineup.

 

This isn't over.

 

:flythew:

[Cubswin11]

Dance with the girl you brought to the prom

 

[We Got The Whole 9]

If we could bring that April plate discipline back we would crush these guys still. But we just don't know which pitches to swing at anymore. It's hard to be optimistic when you're looking at that offensive approach. The pitching has to be practically perfect.

 

That said, I expect our SP to give us great outings and it's horsefeathering time for our hitters to reciprocate. I would like to see less of a 'pull everything in the air' approach and more of a 'go with the pitch and just focus on hard contact' . It's hard to beat the 'BABIP Gods' when you play right into the opponents plans.

[mikeyt34]

This is what I hope for tonight. The players and coaches need to stay in the moment, pitch by pitch and win game 5. Stay in the moment and don't look ahead, the fans and the media are already doing enough of that for you. I want them to fight and force a game 6. This team has never given up all year and I don't expect them to start doing so now on the biggest stage. Win tonight and gain some confidence for game 6 and let Cleveland know we aren't done yet. Find a way to win game 6, pitch by pitch, don't think about game 7. Win game 6 and the pressure falls on Cleveland to not blow a 3-1 series lead. Game 7 will be epic win or lose. Keep the faith. Go Cubs!

[bhogg]

Big swings and trying to pull everything is killing us. Lots of hits can be found in right field, gentlemen.

[Gmoney08]

Theo has won 2 WS titles. In 04 he was down 3-0 to the Evil Empire Yankees, in 07 he was down 3-1 to a team from Cleveland. To win a title with Theo you need to be down to the brink of elimination, Thoyer gets off on the thrill.

[Gmoney08]

Anybody want to compare the game 5, 6, and 7 pitching matchups of the 04 alcs & 07 alcs to our matchups? With stats would be badass too. Im on my phone & running around.

[Cubswin11]

Anybody want to compare the game 5, 6, and 7 pitching matchups of the 04 alcs & 07 alcs to our matchups? With stats would be badass too. Im on my phone & running around.

Spoiler alert. We're probably way better

[Rex Buckingham]

2004: NYY v BOS

 

Game 5: Mussina v Pedro

Game 6: Lieber v Schilling

Game 7: Kevin Brown v Derek Lowe

 

2007: CLE v BOS

 

Game 5: Sabathia v Beckett

Game 6: Roberto Hernandez (Fausto Carmona) v Schilling

Game 7: Jake Westbrook v Daisuke Matsuzaka