Andy

Yeah I'm on board with this thought.

Next week Carolina faces Jameis Winston, who will actually be easily the best quarterback they have faced so far. This season has been weird.

Can't win the NLDS without winning the wild-card game, and I think Pittsburgh is a better team than STL. Hence, I vote for STL here. Beat them, take your chances in the NLDS. Funny stuff can happen in a short series. That said it probably doesn't make a ton of difference. I would like to see the division race come down to the end, though.

Top 25 games ------------------------------ (1) Ohio State at Indiana (3:30 pm, ABC/ESPN2) Purdue at (2) Michigan State (12 pm, ESPN2) (3) Ole Miss at (25) Florida (7 pm, ESPN) Texas at (4) TCU (12 pm, ABC) (5) Baylor vs Texas Tech – in Arlington, TX (3:30 pm, ABC/ESPN2) (6) Notre Dame at (12) Clemson (8 pm, ABC) Arizona State at (7) UCLA (7:30 pm, FOX) (13) Alabama at (8) Georgia (3:30 pm, CBS) Eastern Michigan at (9) LSU (7 pm, ESPNU) (11) Florida State at Wake Forest (3:30 pm, ESPN) (21) Mississippi State at (14) Texas A&M (7:30 pm, SEC Network) (23) West Virginia at (15) Oklahoma (12 pm, FS1) Minnesota at (16) Northwestern (12 pm, BTN) Arizona at (18) Stanford (10:30 pm, Pac-12 Network) Iowa at (19) Wisconsin (12 pm, ESPN) Kansas State at (20) Oklahoma State (4 pm, FS1) (22) Michigan at Maryland (12 pm, BTN) Washington State at (24) California (4 pm, Pac-12 Network) Other nationally available games --------------------------------------------------- Miami at Cincinnati (7:30 pm Thursday, ESPN) Memphis at South Florida (7 pm Friday, ESPN2) Temple at Charlotte (7 pm Friday, CBSSN) UConn at BYU (10:15 pm Friday, ESPN2) Army at Penn State (12 pm, ESPNU) South Carolina at Missouri (12 pm, SEC Network) Kansas at Iowa State (12 pm, FSN) Pittsburgh at Virginia Tech (12 pm, FSN/ESPN3) Houston at Tulsa (12 pm, CBSSN) UCF at Tulane (12 pm, ESPNEWS) Louisville at NC State (12:30 pm, ACC Network/ESPN3) Ohio at Akron (2 pm, ESPN3) Florida International at UMass (3 pm, ESPN3) Northern Illinois at Central Michigan (3 pm, ESPN3) Toledo at Ball State (3 pm, ESPN3) North Carolina at Georgia Tech (3:30 pm, ESPNU) Air Force at Navy (3:30 pm, CBSSN) Western Kentucky at Rice (3:30 pm, FSN) Boston College at Duke (3:30 pm, FSN/ESPN3) Bowling Green at Buffalo (3:30 pm, ESPN3) Liberty at Georgia State (3:30 pm, ESPN3) Miami (OH) at Kent State (3:30 pm, ESPN3) Wyoming at Appalachian State (3:30 pm, ESPN3) Nebraska at Illinois (4 pm, BTN) San Jose State at Auburn (4 pm, SEC Network) East Carolina at SMU (4 pm, ESPNEWS) Vanderbilt at Middle Tennessee (7 pm, CBSSN) Colorado State at Utah State (7 pm, ESPN3) Georgia Southern at UL Monroe (7 pm, ESPN3) Idaho at Arkansas State (7 pm, ESPN3) South Alabama at Troy (7 pm, ESPN3) Eastern Kentucky at Kentucky (7:30 pm, SEC Network – Alternate) Oregon at Colorado (10 pm, ESPN) Hawaii at Boise State (10:15 pm, ESPN2) Fresno State at San Diego State (10:30 pm, CBSSN)

I'm not watching but evidently he looks like a college 3rd stringer today. Not sure what happened to him in the off-season.

I vote bullpen day in Game 2 of NLDS. Hammel can be part of it, but he can't go 6 strong.

If you're not in the Cubs territory for this game it is still on MLB.TV.

We're going to have more champagne celebrations

This whole striking out every [expletive] time we need someone to make contact us going to kill me.

I mean, I wouldn't say no to STL blowing the division, but I've sort of done a 180 here - seems like our long-series chances are better against STL than against Pittsburgh especially if Arrieta's unvailable for the first 3 games of a Pittsburgh series.

Man, what a crazy team these Cubs are, 86 comeback wins and 55 blown 9th-inning leads! :wink:

I think if they lose tomorrow too it's a legitimate question worth discussing, but they can pull within 2 in the loss column with 2 wins.

He had 0 chance.

The Cubs lose today, win the next two plus the make up game, its 2 games. Pirates are in St Louis next week But do the Cards have anything to play for at that point or are they basically an expansion team for those games? They might only be 3 games up on the Pirates by the end of today, they'll want to make extra sure to win at least one to ensure they can hold off Pittsburgh themselves. If we win the next two, though, as Brian mentioned, STL will probably be up more than 3.

The Cubs lose today, win the next two plus the make up game, its 2 games. Pirates are in St Louis next week But do the Cards have anything to play for at that point or are they basically an expansion team for those games? They wouldn't have much to play for, but it's not like playing backups has stopped STL from winning a bunch of games to this point.

Weird [expletive] happens to that when Lester is on the mound for some reason, though... What do you mean? CUBS score 4.30 runs per game..... CUBS score 3.63 runs per game when Lester starts. Go CUBS !! Haha answered my question before I even submitted I didn't actually know that, but when you're 10-11 with a pretty solid ERA, there's a pretty good chance your run support has been crap.

In any case, it's more coincidence than anything else.

He gets anemic run support in part because he intentionally makes the lineup worse by making Ross his caddy.

Russell continues to make awesome SS play look as natural as rolling out of bed.

They better bring Castro in if the Cubs are leading in the late innings. Worth it for his facial reactions to clinching alone. They'll sub someone in for defense in the late innings, whether it be Castro or Javy.

STL now leads because of course they do

400s are great seats. This time of the year it's probably a bit cold though.

This is [expletive] annoying.

You had 6 innings to do your dong thing, Cubs.

Why are we being shut out by this clown