Cubs-Padres Game Two Thread: Imanaga's Opener Is A Necessary Evil

18 minutes ago, DrCub said:

What is the minimum age for this old timers club? 

Collecting social security?🤷

2 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

Collecting social security?🤷

Ok. You’re old as dirt then……I feel better.  Lol

Come on Red Sox, win this game so we can play at 5 or later tomorrow night.

50 minutes ago, Outshined_One said:

He should also slide head first into 1B, because everyone knows that's faster.

Now we're thinking:)

51 minutes ago, Outshined_One said:

He should also slide head first into 1B, because everyone knows that's faster.

And wear a sliding mitt while bunting?

8 minutes ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

Come on Red Sox, win this game so we can play at 5 or later tomorrow night.

Exactly 

9 minutes ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

And wear a sliding mitt while bunting?

Duh.  Of course. 

20 minutes ago, DrCub said:

Ok. You’re old as dirt then……I feel better.  Lol

Yep. First Cubs team that disappointed me was the ‘69 Cubs. 

23 minutes ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

Come on Red Sox, win this game so we can play at 5 or later tomorrow night.

Considering I've locked in live-reactions on YouTube after every playoff game, the Yankees forcing us into an early slot makes me happy. 

It means I can get drunk post-pod if they lose. Getting drunk at 11pm at age 38 just doesn't hit like it used to. 

2 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

Considering I've locked in live-reactions on YouTube after every playoff game, the Yankees forcing us into an early slot makes me happy

What you guys are doing is great by the way.  I was only able to watch for a couple minutes after yesterday's game, but non-Marquee local postgame coverage is something I've wanted for awhile, especially when driving home from the ballpark after The Score quickly switches over to syndicated programming.

Welp so much for the "almost every WC series is a sweep" stat.  Hopefully the Dodgers win tonight so the game is at least a little later in the day

1 minute ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

What you guys are doing is great by the way.  I was only able to watch for a couple minutes after yesterday's game, but non-Marquee local postgame coverage is something I've wanted for awhile, especially when driving home from the ballpark after The Score quickly switches over to syndicated programming.

Thanks man! I really think our weekly podcast is good stuff. We're working on hard on optimizing youtube (shoutout to @Mitch Widmeier- he's working on our thumbnails and SEO hard right now). Live reacting to playoff games just feels like a natural progression of it all. And I think it helps me get my feelings and emotions out. 

There's so much Cubs content out there that anyone who's willing to read my articles or spend 45 minutes to me nerding out on data just warms my heart. Really. Not in a cheesy way. Like in "Im honored" way. 

4 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

Welp so much for the "almost every WC series is a sweep" stat.  Hopefully the Dodgers win tonight so the game is at least a little later in the day

It makes me feel better because we're not the outlier! 

(this year)

4:08 if Reds lose tonight 

2:08 if Reds win

NBC5 just said

58 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

Yep. First Cubs team that disappointed me was the ‘69 Cubs. 

JESUS.  I'm older than you in spirit though haha.

I wish I got to see Banks, Santo, Williams, Fergie etc play.  I started with the Grace/Ryno era.

Edited October 2, 2025 by Stratos

42 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

It makes me feel better because we're not the outlier! 

(this year)

We're the outlier in that we won at home in Game 1 and lost at home in game 2.  Though the Reds are currently beating the Dodgers so...

8 minutes ago, Stratos said:

JESUS.  I'm older than you in spirit though haha.

I wish I got to see Banks, Santo, Williams, Fergie etc play.  I started with the Grace/Ryno era.

I was a little late for seeing Banks as a star. The stars were Santo and Williams. Santo is my all time favorite Cubs. He truly loved the team. And was a great guy. I know numerous stories of him during his playing days and in retirement. Just a good guy. So was Williams. Actually Billy still is. I just got an autographed ball by him. 

2 hours ago, Outshined_One said:

He should also slide head first into 1B, because everyone knows that's faster.

Except bunting for a hit is a smart thing to do if you’re a decent bunter. PCA is certainly fast enough. Don’t know if he’s a good enough bunter though.

23 minutes ago, Rcal10 said:

I was a little late for seeing Banks as a star. The stars were Santo and Williams. Santo is my all time favorite Cubs. He truly loved the team. And was a great guy. I know numerous stories of him during his playing days and in retirement. Just a good guy. So was Williams. Actually Billy still is. I just got an autographed ball by him. 

Santo seemed like such a great guy.  They all do.  I only met Fergie Jenkins of those guys.  It was the mid/late 90's, I was a teenager.  I live in Ottawa, Canada, so my dad would take me to a 3 game series sometimes when the Cubs were playing in Montreal.  Cubs were still my religion back then.

I would get to the games when the gates opened and watch their batting practice and stand behind the Cubs dugout to get autographs.  Fergie came out and I gave him a ball to autograph, and he said "throw me the pen", so I reached over the end of the dugout to hand it to him and he said "won't throw it?  I guess you're a polite Canadian!".  Haha.

1 hour ago, Stratos said:

Santo seemed like such a great guy.  They all do.  I only met Fergie Jenkins of those guys.  It was the mid/late 90's, I was a teenager.  I live in Ottawa, Canada, so my dad would take me to a 3 game series sometimes when the Cubs were playing in Montreal.  Cubs were still my religion back then.

I would get to the games when the gates opened and watch their batting practice and stand behind the Cubs dugout to get autographs.  Fergie came out and I gave him a ball to autograph, and he said "throw me the pen", so I reached over the end of the dugout to hand it to him and he said "won't throw it?  I guess you're a polite Canadian!".  Haha.

I got his autograph before a game at Wrigley in 1996. I had seats right behind the Cubs bullpen on the 3rd base line and he autographed the scorecard from my game program. Very nice dude!

5 hours ago, BKHoo said:

Let’s get real PCA has absolutely sucked at the plate since the ASB. But tomorrow is a new opportunity. 

He can be hot or cold, but he will always chase, and extremely doubtful that will ever change, it typically doesn't for players, the aggression is built into their personality, like Javy.  It is what it is, we have to accept it.

Any pitcher who can locate their fastball high out of the zone or breaking stuff low out of the zone is going to get PCA out.  For some reason they kept coming inside on him early in the season and he was launching them, maybe they stopped locating there in the 2nd half, not sure.

Edited October 2, 2025 by Stratos

5 hours ago, Rcal10 said:

Still a bad decision by Counsell. I was sure they were pulling Shota. Very surprised he pitched to Machado. Either take him out and don’t Machado with a righty pen arm or walk Machado and face Merrill. When he decided to leave Shota in I was sure they would want Machado. Not scoring any runs cost them the game. But that doesn’t mean the pitching decision wasn’t a mistake. 

I was a little surprised they went as long with Shota as they did today, given the control issues he was having and guys like Rea/Soroka/Civale fresh.  Machado hit a splitter right over the middle of the plate.  Can't complain much if we scored no runs though.

Shota's K rate was significantly down this year and HR rate signifcantly up, maybe it's just the league seeing him more.   A bit worrisome anyways.  Someone mentioned the Cubs possibility opting out of Shota's deal this winter, it's possible.

2 minutes ago, Stratos said:

I was a little surprised they went as long with Shota as they did today, given the control issues he was having and guys like Rea/Soroka/Civale fresh.  Machado hit a splitter right over the middle of the plate.  Can't complain much if we scored no runs though.

Shota's K rate was significantly down this year and HR rate signifcantly up, maybe it's just the league seeing him more.   A bit worrisome anyways.  Someone mentioned the Cubs possibility opting out of Shota's deal this winter, it's possible.

Offense has to score of course but man, a one run deficit against the Padres bullpen already felt rough and that lead tripling to 3-0 had to feel even worse. Probably did not matter enough to quibble too much about.

Just hope the Cubs can score first tomorrow to put all the pressure on SD.

Love reading your stories about meeting great Chicago Cubs players of another era. My brush with running into a Cubs player was when I was standing close to Albert Almora Jr. Not an all time great like in previous posts. But dude is tall + he had the single greatest advance from 1st to 2nd in Chicago Cubs history. So there’s that. 😛

Did I speak to him? I did not.

Padres are built to win these short elimination series with that bullpen going 5 innings. This strategy works until the later rounds when the fatigue sets in but not in a best of 3. 

Edited October 2, 2025 by Geographyhater8888