9/11 Cubs(Lester) @Brewers(Woodruff) 7:10 MSN

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

Not much time this morning, but it was nice to get a win. Lester is clearly declining. Nothing but feeble smoke and mirrors.

 

 

But give us a good outing here, and all is forgiven.

 

[Sammy Sofa]

If the Cubs lose to the Vaunted Brewers, then it will truly be the greatest disaster this day has ever known.

[Bertz]

This game should *really* be a loss. Woodruff is really good and Lester is obviously cooked. The Brewers have a really good offense against lefties and an atrocious one against righties. And on top of that because of offdays and blowouts the Brewers haven't had to use their good relievers since last Saturday.

 

I have a very modest goal for tonight's game: keep it close enough that the Brewers have to use their good relievers, hopefully have at least one of them throw like 40 pitches and be done for the rest of the weekend.

[Cubswin11]

Would be nice for the offense to come out and put up 3-5 runs in the first to support BDJ and the. He can go junk ball, veteran his way through 5-6 innings.

[squally1313]

This may not be how pitching works, but given Theo's comments about not ruling out Chatwood/Quintana playing limited roles down the stretch, it could be beneficial to see if Lester or Mills can generate a little more success if they're told they're only getting one or two times through the line up. I know it runs counter to trying to save the bullpen where we're at now, but our playoff strategy is basically getting good/long starts from Yu and Kyle, and then patching together the rest of the games, and potentially carrying Q/Chatwood/Adbert means there wouldn't be any need for Lester or Mills to see a lot of hitters.

[stitchface]

the Cubs have become the '98 yankees in terms of long, boring games . . . too bad they aren't as good at winning.

[Bertz]

This may not be how pitching works, but given Theo's comments about not ruling out Chatwood/Quintana playing limited roles down the stretch, it could be beneficial to see if Lester or Mills can generate a little more success if they're told they're only getting one or two times through the line up. I know it runs counter to trying to save the bullpen where we're at now, but our playoff strategy is basically getting good/long starts from Yu and Kyle, and then patching together the rest of the games, and potentially carrying Q/Chatwood/Adbert means there wouldn't be any need for Lester or Mills to see a lot of hitters.

 

I like this idea a lot. My hope for the playoff rotation has been that Chatwood and Q can get up to 3-4 innings by then, and we can do something like Q+Adbert and Chatwood+Mills. But I do wonder if Lester can get back to sitting ~92 if he's only going ~70 pitches. And I'd he's back to having an average fastball, how much of his performance does he claw back (my belief is that the heavy majority of pitcher decline is simply velocity).

[bcl412]

I want good Lester again just because he’s awesome (unlikely) but it he wants to grit/luck his way to a good start I’m down

[Cubswin11]

Win, idiots

 

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Javy finally got benched.

[Andy]

Javy finally got benched.

Ross claims to just be giving him a mental break.

[Cubswin11]

With Strop allegedly “close” per Hottovy, hopefully he’s with the team and him and Javy can bond while he sits tonight and maybe work out of any mental funks.

[Cubswin11]

Bote horsefeathering up routine plays but pulling the hard plays out of his ass with ease is confounding

[Tim]

That play was stupid.

[Cubswin11]

Fun start

 

[Cubswin11]

Caratini horsefeathering sucks. He should never be DH’ing. He’s an above average backup catcher. Let him have his Yu game and give Willy a breather when needed, that’s it.

[Andy]

Good lord, Bryant is just horsefeathering useless right now

[Cubswin11]

Figure it out, offense

[Andy]

Orlando Arcia back on his BS again

[itisallpartoftheplan]

Percent chance that Arcia hot leads to a run: 100%

[soccer10k]

With Strop allegedly “close” per Hottovy, hopefully he’s with the team and him and Javy can bond while he sits tonight and maybe work out of any mental funks.

 

Maybe they can FaceTime Soler and claim that they have Chinese food only to show him a burger. At least then they’ll get a laugh.

[itisallpartoftheplan]

Percent chance that Arcia hot leads to a run: 100%

 

Mistyped hit so we avoided the run.

[itisallpartoftheplan]

Maybe this ump can ring up a Cub hitter on a pitch out of the zone for a 3rd time this inning.

[itisallpartoftheplan]

Maybe this ump can ring up a Cub hitter on a pitch out of the zone for a 3rd time this inning.

 

He did it!!

[Cubswin11]

horsefeathers off ump