Rockies (Marquez) vs Cubs (Horton): 5/27/25, 7:05pm

[Derwood]

Cubs are now 11-3 in the "easy" part of their schedule

[chibears55]

Keep the Ws coming 

[gflore34]

After all the rockets, Cubs win on a ball with 63+ EV seems fitting.

[SparkMark1]

Thank goodness.  Now my son can go to bed.

[Bertz]

Pretty incredible game from the bullpen, especially with Palencia and Pomeranz down.  Feels like this makes up for one of the disaster games in April.

[Dfan25]

I love the diversity of this offense  They won that game stealing bags . On days like this at Wrigley , so important to have guys that can steal bags .

[gflore34]

The Cubs will put big runs tomorrow, Rockies won’t keep executing.  They’ve only won 9 games for a reason.

[Crusader]

The NL central is surprisingly competitive this year. Only the Pirates are sub .500 in the division.

[chibears55]

Cubs are still winning in Imanaga spot of rotation, 4 and 0 since he went down.

That big

[Bertz]

Another series win too.  If I'm counting right they are 13-5-1 on a series by series basis.

[Hot Sauce]

29 minutes ago, gflore34 said:

The Cubs will put big runs tomorrow, Rockies won’t keep executing.  They’ve only won 9 games for a reason.

So what you’re saying is bet it all on the over? 😬

[UMFan83]

44 minutes ago, Bertz said:

Pretty incredible game from the bullpen, especially with Palencia and Pomeranz down.  Feels like this makes up for one of the disaster games in April.

Have to admit the bullpen has been pretty damn good overall for a while now.  They are 5th in bullpen ERA in the month of May (before tonight) at 2.93

Edited May 28, 2025 by UMFan83

[We Got The Whole 9]

It looks like we've solidified 3B and have done so with a dynamic player that will be on base a lot, brings even more speed to the team, and should hit for above average power. And now he's playing outstanding defense as well. 

[Rcal10]

8 hours ago, chibears55 said:

Busch won this game with taking a look at that hole on left side and guiding that ball that way knowing pitcher was gonna keep it away so he cant pull it.

I guess that is one way if looking at it. I saw Busch check his swing and the ball go through. I did not see that he guided the ball that way. But either way, after a game of a lot of hard contact the Cubs won on 2 hits with EV very low. Good win. I said before the game started that Marquez could be a tough match up. Maybe he is a guy they go after at the deadline? 

[Jason Ross]

15 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

I guess that is one way if looking at it. I saw Busch check his swing and the ball go through. I did not see that he guided the ball that way. But either way, after a game of a lot of hard contact the Cubs won on 2 hits with EV very low. Good win. I said before the game started that Marquez could be a tough match up. Maybe he is a guy they go after at the deadline? 

Marquez is really bad. He's had some nice results but the processes behind those results are not encouraging. His K%, using all SP's with at least 50 IP, is the second lowest in baseball and he's running an xFIP of 4.86. The Cubs should not want him anywhere near this rotation.

[gflore34]

25 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

I guess that is one way if looking at it. I saw Busch check his swing and the ball go through. I did not see that he guided the ball that way. But either way, after a game of a lot of hard contact the Cubs won on 2 hits with EV very low. Good win. I said before the game started that Marquez could be a tough match up. Maybe he is a guy they go after at the deadline? 

Watched the condensed game, it was more Wrigley Field conditions that kept the score down than anything Marquez did.  Hard pass.

Edited May 28, 2025 by gflore34

[BKHoo]

Young pitcher has best performance of young career. Confidence builder. 
 

Young hitter has a GW hit, biggest hit of young career. Confidence builder. 
 

I think we would all have signed up for those results! 

[Rcal10]

58 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

Marquez is really bad. He's had some nice results but the processes behind those results are not encouraging. His K%, using all SP's with at least 50 IP, is the second lowest in baseball and he's running an xFIP of 4.86. The Cubs should not want him anywhere near this rotation.

Ok. I was probably looking at him based on several years past. He was once a decent pitcher. I just don’t think they will be shipping in the TOR aisle. For one reason, I doubt any will be available. I think they will end up with an innings eating MOR starter. (Keller type) But even with just throwing out Keller, I haven’t looked nearly as deep as you and others into his underlying numbers. I am just suggesting him as the type of guy I expect. MOR, innings eating pitcher who will give them a 3.75 to 4.25 era and keep them in games. 

Edited May 28, 2025 by Rcal10

[Rcal10]

Just now, BKHoo said:

Young pitcher has best performance of young career. Confidence builder. 
 

Young hitter has a GW hit, biggest hit of young career. Confidence builder. 
 

I think we would all have signed up for those results! 

In the end, yes, game worked out just fine. 😅

[CubUgly]

9 hours ago, UMFan83 said:

I thought Shaw was cooked down 0-2.  And he kind of was since he took strike 3 but the ump called it a ball.  Nice work getting a bat on it!

I thought the baseball gods owed us a couple - and they delivered with the check swing hit by Bush and the blooper hit by Shaw.  Lot's of very hard hit balls that found gloves throughout the game - so I thought baseball justice was served. 

[squally1313]

40 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

Ok. I was probably looking at him based on several years past. He was once a decent pitcher. I just don’t think they will be shipping in the TOR aisle. For one reason, I doubt any will be available. I think they will end up with an innings eating MOR starter. (Keller type) But even with just throwing out Keller, I haven’t looked nearly as deep as you and others contending his underlying numbers. I am just suggesting him as the type of guy I expect. MOR, innings eating pitcher who will give them a 3.75 to 4.25 era and keep them in games. 

Going into the year, my big gripe was a lack of top end talent, but figured we had enough mid rotation depth to get through the year without too much pain. Things are clearly different now, Matthew Boyd is our ace, Horton is already here and pitching into the 7th, we're kinda just closing our eyes and giving the ball to Colin Rea every 5th day. Our internal reinforcements are Jordan Wicks and....Connor Noland?

We've discussed the lack of top end talent and I get it, especially with the calendar still saying May. But this offense is good enough to cover for a generally mediocre innings eater who's future arm health we are less concerned about than Brown and Horton. Just call the Orioles and their 1.8% playoff chance every day and ask what combination of Eflin, Morton, Sugano, Bautista, Soto we can have.  

[mul21]

I'm glad they pulled that out last night.  The 4 or 5 balls that were hit with like 102+ EVs that went for outs were frustrating and would have been more so if they lost.  I'm curious if there's a stat like xGoals in soccer for baseball that would tell us how many runs we should have scored.

[Derwood]

The problem with “our offense is good enough to cover for meh pitching” is that the playoffs tend to have you facing better pitching and better offenses. Having a shut down ace is a must 

[Jason Ross]

1 hour ago, Rcal10 said:

Ok. I was probably looking at him based on several years past. He was once a decent pitcher. I just don’t think they will be shipping in the TOR aisle. For one reason, I doubt any will be available. I think they will end up with an innings eating MOR starter. (Keller type) But even with just throwing out Keller, I haven’t looked nearly as deep as you and others into his underlying numbers. I am just suggesting him as the type of guy I expect. MOR, innings eating pitcher who will give them a 3.75 to 4.25 era and keep them in games. 

I see no reason to believe the team wouldn't be shopping for a very good arm. They might be rentals, but they have both need and capital to acquire any player they want. They have already shown a willingness to acquire expiring contracts (Tucker). 

[squally1313]

26 minutes ago, mul21 said:

I'm glad they pulled that out last night.  The 4 or 5 balls that were hit with like 102+ EVs that went for outs were frustrating and would have been more so if they lost.  I'm curious if there's a stat like xGoals in soccer for baseball that would tell us how many runs we should have scored.

The closest thing I've found is the xBA stat in the gamefeed on Savant. Obviously not a direct correlation to runs but if you see it enough you get a sense of just how lopsided the batted ball performance was or wasn't. Last night had them fairly even actually. 

https://www.mlb.com/glossary/statcast/expected-batting-average