8/23 - Cubs (Taillon) vs Tigers (Skubal): 12:10pm, Marquee

[UMFan83]

Just now, chibears55 said:

As of now Smyly is scheduled to pitch Sunday,  im guessing he'll start it and then will be in the pen after the September call up

Wicks was scratched from his start today and instead was seen throwing a bullpen session during the I-Cubs game.  Not sure if that means he'll be called up but...

[UMFan83]

Hey hey Morel got a hit!  That's gotta feel good for him.

Edited August 23, 2023 by UMFan83

[squally1313]

F the closer?

[UMFan83]

See this is a situation where I still don't love the bunt but I don't mind it either.

[chibears55]

2 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

That was really impressive pitching going through the heart of their order.  At times Merryweather looks completely dominant, but he has enough off performances to always make me a little nervous when he pitches.

I could be wrong but I think he could be a guy that benefits more after a day off over being used on consecutive (3+) days

[UMFan83]

That'll work Nico!

[Transmogrified Tiger]

That's as impressive an opposite field drive as I've ever seen from Nico

[UMFan83]

I really hope we don't have to see Javy PH as the tying or winning run

[UMFan83]

Wow I thought that was an easy hit off the bat,  Nice leap by Candelario

Edited August 23, 2023 by UMFan83

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Just now, UMFan83 said:

I really hope we don't have to see Javy PH as the tying or winning run

Adbert will put him through the spin cycle

 

(this post will mysteriously vanish if Javy does anything positive)

[UMFan83]

And then he walks his first lefty of the year on 4 pitches.  Sub-optimal

[UMFan83]

fuuuuuuuck.  Come on Adbert

[Michael Busch Light]

Is this Alzolay or Rod Beck closing this game?

[UMFan83]

Why can't anything be easy lately?

 

Seems like no matter what the winning run ends up hitting in the 9th

[UMFan83]

Got the 2nd out but now the tying run is in scoring position.  Come on, one more out

[UMFan83]

Starlinphew.gif

[squally1313]

Series win. 5-3. 

[UMFan83]

Shohei is pitching today and helped his cause with a 2 run HR in the 1st against the Reds

[gflore34]

I'll take it but, there's got to some movement on SP,  give Wicks a start, maybe, provided he's ready to go, Brown as well.

[Irrelevant Dude]

It feels like we "survived" the Tigers.  Now take 3 out of 4 from the Pirates and all will be well going into the Milwaukee series.

[UMFan83]

10 of the last 11 Cubs wins have come by 1 or 2 runs (also 4 of the last 7 losses).  Living on the edge!

Edited August 23, 2023 by UMFan83

[Jason Ross]

5 minutes ago, gflore34 said:

I'll take it but, there's got to some movement on SP,  give Wicks a start, maybe, provided he's ready to go, Brown as well.

Brown has been on the shelf with a lat issue, so he's off the table.  Wicks was scratched from his start today with no injury, likely he's up tomorrow.

[We Got The Whole 9]

Love that we keep winning series. Good job today to get off the mat after the haymaker.

[squally1313]

8 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

10 of the last 11 Cubs wins have come by 1 or 2 runs (also 4 of the last 7 losses).  Living on the edge!

Will take my 'everything is fine stop being so negative' hat for a moment and say that I'm having some flashbacks, potentially misguided, to 2017-2018 where the team just seemed so exhausted by the time they got to late September/October that it seemed only natural that the dam would break open, which is did.

Then again, the ultimate results of those seasons would still exceed this years expectations, so whatever. 

Saw a tweet earlier, either Matt Clapp or Cerami (do either/both lurk/post here) about how it's tough to comprehend Good Teams rather than Great Teams or Bad Teams. This Cub team is Good. But they are definitely not great. Usually that just means they are some combination of fun and stressful, depending on your approach. But, for me, it was pretty fun being glued to the television on a Wednesday afternoon in August after the last few years. 

[Transmogrified Tiger]

5 minutes ago, squally1313 said:

Will take my 'everything is fine stop being so negative' hat for a moment and say that I'm having some flashbacks, potentially misguided, to 2017-2018 where the team just seemed so exhausted by the time they got to late September/October that it seemed only natural that the dam would break open, which is did.

Then again, the ultimate results of those seasons would still exceed this years expectations, so whatever. 

Saw a tweet earlier, either Matt Clapp or Cerami (do either/both lurk/post here) about how it's tough to comprehend Good Teams rather than Great Teams or Bad Teams. This Cub team is Good. But they are definitely not great. Usually that just means they are some combination of fun and stressful, depending on your approach. But, for me, it was pretty fun being glued to the television on a Wednesday afternoon in August after the last few years. 

I think the amount of close games recently is a bit abnormal, but I think part of the experience is that the Cubs have very little recent experience being around average.  We lament that the bullpen and rotation isn't quite deep enough, the offense has slumps or can't end enough games early, etc and those aren't incorrect, but we attribute it as a failing when it's actually definitionally part of being not quite a very good team.  If the offense was good enough to more consistently turn these games into laughers or the SP were a bit better/healthier, we'd probably have had higher expectations going into the season!  That's the maddening part of following a team good enough to care but not good enough to dominate.  The good news in the case of the 2023 Cubs is there's no indication this is a one off or last hurrah, so the healthy thing is to enjoy a relative lack of expectation or downside for failure.  If the SP run out of steam or Bellinger gets hurt spreading peanut butter or w/e that stinks, but ultimately this year is largely house money and we can enjoy the success and the ride(which at this point is likely to go down to the wire either way) without getting too hung up on what was lost if they don't make it.