8/20 - Royals (Lyle) vs Cubs (Hendricks): 1:20pm, Marquee

[itisallpartoftheplan]

Amaya has finally passed Hosmer in at bats this season. A combo of Amaya being hit by a pitch a lot and how few games he has started.

[CubUgly]

2 hours ago, UMFan83 said:

much more stressful series against the Royals than any of us were anticipating but they got the series win so ok then, lets move on.

Yeah,, whether you are a process oriented guy or results oriented, the last two series have not been aesthetically pleasing,

Process - Offense really struggled and floundered way too much the last 5 games.  Pitching was not very sharp but managed to do just enough to avoid total embarrassment. 

Results - 3-2 is bare minimum of what we had to do.

Good news -  we get a chance at getting it right starting tomorrow in Detroit.

 

[UMFan83]

Detroit is interesting. Their record isn’t as bad as you’d think and they’ve won 8 of their last 12 games against the Twins, Guardians and Red Sox.  They had a 2-13 stretch in early-June which included a 9 game losing streak. Outside of that stretch they are 55-54  

At the same time, their RD for the season is over -100 so they should probably have a much worse record than they do. 

Edited August 20, 2023 by UMFan83

[Brock Beauchamp]

9 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

Detroit is interesting. Their record isn’t as bad as you’d think and they’ve won 8 of their last 12 games against the Twins, Guardians and Red Sox.  They had a 2-13 stretch in early-June which included a 9 game losing streak. Outside of that stretch they are 55-54  

At the same time, their RD for the season is over -100 so they should probably have a much worse record than they do. 

This is a good summary of Detroit. They flutter between annoyingly competent and an absolute trashfire seemingly at random. They're not a good team but string together stretches of solid play.

[itisallpartoftheplan]

Detroit has the ERA advantage in 2 of the 3 pitching matchups.

Also if the Phillies lose tonight we can move 2 games back in the LOSS column of WC1. 
 

Phillies and Giants play 3 Mon-Wed

So if we can manage a sweep we will gain 3 games on either WC2 or WC1 or a combo of both.

[UMFan83]

Seiya since his mental rest:

11-32 (.344), 3 HR, 5 total XBH, 6 RBI, only 4 K.

Slash line .344/.353/.759/1.112

Small sample size but good stuff.  Him coming out of his slump as some of the others have been struggling has been really helpful.

[Rcal10]

40 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

Detroit is interesting. Their record isn’t as bad as you’d think and they’ve won 8 of their last 12 games against the Twins, Guardians and Red Sox.  They had a 2-13 stretch in early-June which included a 9 game losing streak. Outside of that stretch they are 55-54  

At the same time, their RD for the season is over -100 so they should probably have a much worse record than they do. 

If we are looking for positives, I believe the homestand saw the Cubs with 5 quality starts. That isn’t much, but something. 

[UMFan83]

2 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

If we are looking for positives, I believe the homestand saw the Cubs with 5 quality starts. That isn’t much, but something. 

Yeah the pitching has held up of late, albeit against 2 pretty bad teams.  Detroit has scored the 2nd fewest runs in baseball so hoping that continues.  Javy is having an absolutely terrible offensive season but could definitely see him getting up for these games, though I said the same thing about Velasquez this weekend and he didn't really do anything so we'll see.

[Derwood]

Nats hold on to win 4-3