8/15 - White Sox (Toussaint) vs Cubs (Hendricks): 7:05pm, Marquee

[Andy]

Cincinnati and Miami both lost, so at least there's that

[UMFan83]

Just now, Andy said:

Cincinnati and Miami both lost, so at least there's that

Brewers up 1-0 early 

[itisallpartoftheplan]

After watching the White Sox blow multiple late leads vs the Brewers we better get this horsefeathers done tonight.

[UMFan83]

3 minutes ago, itisallpartoftheplan said:

After watching the White Sox blow multiple late leads vs the Brewers we better get this horsefeathers done tonight.

I hope so. The Cubs offense looks to be going into a slump, but a slumping Cubs offense might still be better than the Brewers 😂

[Bobson Dugnutt]

37 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

Hendricks ended up doing pretty well tonight. Like to see how many balls the Sox hit hard. Early runs were on weak contact. So much for him being toast and the Cubs needing 10 runs to win tonight. 

He wasn’t getting weak contact in the 2nd and 3rd. Good on him for settling in though.

[Irrelevant Dude]

Five whole hits against this parade of bums, with 7-8-9 due up in the 9th.

[UMFan83]

Would be so Cubs to win series against the Reds, Braves and Jays and then go like 4-8 during this stretch against terrible teams.

[UMFan83]

1 minute ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

Five whole hits against this parade of bums, with 7-8-9 due up in the 9th.

I know baseball is a game of ups and downs but its crazy to me how the entire offense all the sudden look so bad.  For like a month it seemed like we were putting pressure on every team we faced, starting innings with a couple on, getting big hits.  Now it feels like we can barely get anything going.  

I don't want to act too negative, but just feels like we're entering one of those stretches where we struggle to score runs for a couple of weeks.  Hopefully the bad teams we play won't allow us to do that.

Edited August 16, 2023 by UMFan83

[itisallpartoftheplan]

Please at least do a fake rally. Don’t go out with a whimper.

[chibears55]

14 minutes ago, itisallpartoftheplan said:

After watching the White Sox blow multiple late leads vs the Brewers we better get this horsefeathers done tonight.

Bottom of order coming up

[UMFan83]

1 minute ago, chibears55 said:

Bottom of order coming up

That part doesnt phase me.  Morel can tie it with a swing, Seiya has been our hottest hitter, and we have 2 more catchers on the bench to take over for Gomes if we need to PH.

Edited August 16, 2023 by UMFan83

[Irrelevant Dude]

1 minute ago, UMFan83 said:

I don't want to act too negative, but just feels like we're entering one of those stretches where we struggle to score runs for a couple of weeks.

My concern is that it feels a bit like a house of cards on top of a starting rotation that is on the verge of collapse. The offense is going to have to be really good for this team to sustain a playoff push.

[UMFan83]

Just now, Irrelevant Dude said:

My concern is that it feels a bit like a house of cards on top of a starting rotation that is on the verge of collapse. The offense is going to have to be really good for this team to sustain a playoff push.

Yeah thats the problem.  The Cubs have averaged 5.7 runs allowed in August including this game.  The offense has been otherworldly until recently but its simply not sustainable, they're gonna have colder stretches.

[UMFan83]

And its 5-3 on a ground ball Dansby missed, a SB and a bloop single

[Andy]

Elvis Andrus hasn't hit for crap as far as I can remember so of course 2 RBI and a run tonight

[UMFan83]

White Sox allowed the Brewers to sweep them and then they beat us.  Well played.  If they win tomorrow they'll have cost the Cubs 5 games in the standings over a 6 day period

Edited August 16, 2023 by UMFan83

[squally1313]

It’s annoying that the Sox still have two solid relievers after their fire sale. At least they both went multiple innings tonight and are hopefully out for tomorrow. 
 

nice horsefeathers call on 0-1 for morel. 

[chibears55]

I think the Cubs thought today was a day off too

[We Got The Whole 9]

Terrible offensive effort. Pretty much felt like it was over after Santos dominated them in the 8th and they wisely kept him in there. 

 

Bats aren't doing much and they rarely come back in the 9th. It felt inevitable.

[Derwood]

Talk about going out with a whimper. 

[UMFan83]

1 minute ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

Terrible offensive effort. Pretty much felt like it was over after Santos dominated them in the 8th and they wisely kept him in there. 

 

Bats aren't doing much and they rarely come back in the 9th. It felt inevitable.

This is when I hate baseball.  It's not like the Cubs aren't trying hard enough or are running the wrong plays or whatever like other sports.  In baseball players will all slump a couple times a year and be hot other times a year.  The Cubs seem to slump or get hot as a team.  You can't really do much other than ride it out and hope the pitching shows up.

[Irrelevant Dude]

There are just too many guys struggling in the Cubs lineup right now.

Tauchman hasn't done a ton lately, although he's still giving them more than anyone could have expected.  It's great that Happ found the basket tonight, but overall he's still making way too many unproductive outs.  Candelario has cooled off, Morel has been bad for awhile, and Gomes hasn't done anything lately.  It would be nice if Mervis was mashing at Iowa and could maybe give them shot in the arm, but he doesn't seem to be pushing the envelope.  PCA is the only guy right now who is really making a case for a call up, but that still doesn't seem like a wise move.

[We Got The Whole 9]

12 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

This is when I hate baseball.  It's not like the Cubs aren't trying hard enough or are running the wrong plays or whatever like other sports.  In baseball players will all slump a couple times a year and be hot other times a year.  The Cubs seem to slump or get hot as a team.  You can't really do much other than ride it out and hope the pitching shows up.

They've been extremely competitive in the series against the best teams in the league but they followed up winning a series against the Braves by dropping one to the Mets and now have dropped the opener to the Sox after taking the series vs the Blue Jays. Annoying AF.

 

Working on a 4 game streak against sub-500 teams where they score less than 4 runs.

[UMFan83]

16 minutes ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

There are just too many guys struggling in the Cubs lineup right now.

Tauchman hasn't done a ton lately, although he's still giving them more than anyone could have expected.  It's great that Happ found the basket tonight, but overall he's still making way too many unproductive outs.  Candelario has cooled off, Morel has been bad for awhile, and Gomes hasn't done anything lately.  It would be nice if Mervis was mashing at Iowa and could maybe give them shot in the arm, but he doesn't seem to be pushing the envelope.  PCA is the only guy right now who is really making a case for a call up, but that still doesn't seem like a wise move.

It's several guys right now

Dansby is 5 for his last 35

Morel is 2 for his last 28

Gomes is 2 for his last 26

Happ is 6 for his last 41

Even Bellinger is 0 for his last 6!!!

 

Nico is still hitting well, Seiya has been hot since coming back.  Candelario has cooled off in that hes not hitting .800 but hes still hitting ok.

[squally1313]

18 minutes ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

There are just too many guys struggling in the Cubs lineup right now.

Tauchman hasn't done a ton lately, although he's still giving them more than anyone could have expected.  It's great that Happ found the basket tonight, but overall he's still making way too many unproductive outs.  Candelario has cooled off, Morel has been bad for awhile, and Gomes hasn't done anything lately.  It would be nice if Mervis was mashing at Iowa and could maybe give them shot in the arm, but he doesn't seem to be pushing the envelope.  PCA is the only guy right now who is really making a case for a call up, but that still doesn't seem like a wise move.

But this is just baseball. You list five guys that are struggling, one of them hit a home run tonight. You don’t mention Hoerner, 9 for his last 23 going into tonight, or Seiya’s hot streak after he sat for a week. Bellinger is 14/31 going into tonight. You add all those together, your list and mine, and you get a team that’s scored 26 runs in its last 7 games, which is hardly some crisis. It’s a 3-4 record with 6 of those games on the road. I’m not telling you it’s all going to be ok, every model has us as basically a coin flip right now. But it’s basically one game where both teams hit poorly, save for a couple home runs, and they found some holes. Let’s not make this a bigger deal.