8/22 - Cubs (Smyly) vs Detroit (Olson): 5:40pm, Marquee

[Brock Beauchamp]

Last night was a weird and slightly dumb game but it resulted in a win so that's fun.

Tonight, Drew Smyly takes the mound. Hopefully Detroit brings their ineptitude A game with the bats.

[Tryptamine]

With a severely depleted pen, I suspect Smyly is going to have eat 5 or 6 innings regardless of performance, which is why it was so important to win yesterday. 

[BearDown1223]

45 minutes ago, Tryptamine said:

With a severely depleted pen, I suspect Smyly is going to have eat 5 or 6 innings regardless of performance, which is why it was so important to win yesterday. 

I think we are in okay spot tonight.  I think only Leiter and Fulmer are down.

Wesneski threw 6 pitches last night; Palencia threw 7 pitches; Merryweather and Alzolay had the night off.

Hopefully Smyly can give a solid 5-6 innings, but if not, I would still try to win this one.  I think tomorrow is where we might see some guys get a rest with the early day game. 

[Rex Buckingham]

Think we could actually see 2+ innings out of Wesneski tonight?  Maybe actually have Smyly serve as an opener without announcing it ahead of time?

[Tryptamine]

ESPN has the Cubs as 55/45 favorites in this game. I'm not sure I'd agree with that. The line also has the Cubs at -120. Frankly I'll be thrilled if they win this game as I'm fully expecting to them to lose and by a pretty decent margin, but baseball, so who knows. 

[squally1313]

1 hour ago, Tryptamine said:

ESPN has the Cubs as 55/45 favorites in this game. I'm not sure I'd agree with that. The line also has the Cubs at -120. Frankly I'll be thrilled if they win this game as I'm fully expecting to them to lose and by a pretty decent margin, but baseball, so who knows. 

Their starter has allowed at least 4 ERs in four of his last five starts. He improved on his bad AAA numbers to start the year, but still isn’t good. Cubs offense is more than capable of covering for whatever Smyly decides to do today. 

[We Got The Whole 9]

36 minutes ago, squally1313 said:

Their starter has allowed at least 4 ERs in four of his last five starts. He improved on his bad AAA numbers to start the year, but still isn’t good. Cubs offense is more than capable of covering for whatever Smyly decides to do today. 

Counterpoint: the pile of JAGs over the last 15 games that have held us to 3 or less runs in their outings

[UMFan83]

Sunday's starter Jordan Lyles had a 7.22 ERA in his previous 5 starts, allowing opponents to have a .987 OPS against him in those starts.  It looks like they must have made a scoring change because they were originally saying he allowed 2 ER in 8 innings but now its 4 ER.  But either way, he allowed 6 base runners in 8 innings.

Last nights starter Alex Faedo had a 6.08 ERA in his previous 5 starts and held the Cubs to 2 ER and 5 total base runners in 6 innings.  Unlike Lyles though who was getting hit hard in all 5 of those starts, Faedo's starts were alternated between solid and terrible.

[Rcal10]

3 hours ago, Tryptamine said:

With a severely depleted pen, I suspect Smyly is going to have eat 5 or 6 innings regardless of performance, which is why it was so important to win yesterday. 

I don’t agree with this. If Smyly struggles they can bring in Rucker for multiple innings. He is back on the team. I doubt they let Smyly get hit around and not make a move. Now, if Rucker also gets hit he might have to take it a bit. At that point there is no use wasting pen arms in a lopsided game. But I don’t expect that. They have enough pen arms if they need to guard a lead. 
I expect that soon Boxberger and maybe Burdi are brought back. They need some additional pen arms. 

Edited August 22, 2023 by Rcal10

[Andy]

16 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

Sunday's starter Jordan Lyles had a 7.22 ERA in his previous 5 starts, allowing opponents to have a .987 OPS against him in those starts.  It looks like they must have made a scoring change because they were originally saying he allowed 2 ER in 8 innings but now its 4 ER.  But either way, he allowed 6 base runners in 8 innings.

They must have taken back the error they gave to the Royals CF on Happ's Little League triple in the first inning of that one.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Just now, Andy said:

They must have taken back the error they gave to the Royals CF on Happ's Little League triple in the first inning of that one.

They did.

[bukie]

24 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

Sunday's starter Jordan Lyles had a 7.22 ERA in his previous 5 starts, allowing opponents to have a .987 OPS against him in those starts.  It looks like they must have made a scoring change because they were originally saying he allowed 2 ER in 8 innings but now its 4 ER.  But either way, he allowed 6 base runners in 8 innings.

Last nights starter Alex Faedo had a 6.08 ERA in his previous 5 starts and held the Cubs to 2 ER and 5 total base runners in 6 innings.  Unlike Lyles though who was getting hit hard in all 5 of those starts, Faedo's starts were alternated between solid and terrible.

A little better and the Cubs might have been able to pick up wins the last 2 days.

[We Got The Whole 9]

What a change in approach from Suzuki after the reset. 1 walk since he returned and that was on 8/11, 4 Ks and 6 XBH in 38 PA for a 417 ISO. 

[itisallpartoftheplan]

No quality start for Lyles!

[thawv]

2 hours ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

What a change in approach from Suzuki after the reset. 1 walk since he returned and that was on 8/11, 4 Ks and 6 XBH in 38 PA for a 417 ISO. 

He's doing exactly what he should be doing.  He's not as passive, and is swinging at more pitches, instead of being behind in the count all the time.  If he stays with this approach, we are in for a big pleasant surprise from him.

[itisallpartoftheplan]

Baez was initially in the lineup. Now he’s out.

[abuck1220]

smyly sucks, so does the ump. 

[UMFan83]

Assuming he pitches more than 1 inning, this will be the 7th multi-inning appearance in a row that Smyly gives up a HR in his first inning of work. Cubs down 1-0

[itisallpartoftheplan]

Just bet that Smyly will give up a 1st inning homer every game to get rich.

[abuck1220]

willing to cut their losses on mancini and barnhart, but determined to let smyly start games. 

[chibears55]

Smyly won't make it out of the first inning..

[UMFan83]

Way to be bold and stick with the pitcher with an ERA over 10.00 for the last 3 months Rossy

[SOFNR]

Smyly is just completely worthless in the rotation. They can't keep throwing him out there.

[CubinNY]

This is what I expected from him all season. At least he gave them a good month. 

[CubinNY]

They kind of look dead to start the game