Andy

Us beating Pittsburgh would be good and a home game against them is better than a road game, but if there's any chance Pittsburgh can catch STL, that's what I want because STL doesn't have a Cole and I think we would beat them in a one game scenario with Arrieta. Obviously that would put us behind the 8 ball with Pittsburgh in the NLDS, but that's happening whichever way we go, and if it happens with Pittsburgh at least it means we're not playing [expletive] St. Louis. Sorry that means I'm rooting against you getting to go to a home game but yeah that doesn't matter to me one bit.

Still don't really want the Pirates to lose. We play them plenty enough that we can make up that ground ourselves. And if we don't, we can [expletive] beat these St. Louis chumps in their stadium in the wild-card game.

If you're going to take Lester and Strop out, why not Rondon? Piece together the 9th if you get there. That would've seemingly been a Joe-like move. Meh. This sucks.

can't [expletive] blow a game like that Definitely. Joe's stated goal is to catch St. Louis, and nothing he did today helped that. Should've either left Lester or Strop in, and there's no [expletive] excuse for Bryant not to hit unless he's injured.

That's what we get for striking out with RISP like 7 times in the game, I guess.

Would really be cool if we could rally and win. Faint hopes of the division are the only thing making these September games relevant, at least mathematically (though obviously watching a good Cubs team is fun).

Kinda would've rather pitched Strop than these two.

Hope we don't regret scoring only 3 out of all the opportunities. Lock this bitch down Strop and Rondon.

Well, that'll happen when we don't hit the baseball.

I think he's done it only 3 or 4 times, so you're probably not alone.

Let him off the hook there, Cogs. Oh well. Hopefully Lester can go into shutdown mode.

That would be a giant [expletive] no. What a brain-dead move by Matheny, especially when you're up 4.5 games in the division and there's little reason to take the risk.

LA STELLA!

And poor fundamentals on the rundown. Just a BFIB nightmare of a play. Hysterical.

Wow. Just wow on that Grichuk move.

Theo and Jed certainly deserve a ton of credit for this stuff, but it's worth acknowledging that there are some things that have gone far better than could reasonably have been anticipated, which has accelerated our timeline. Like we all knew Rizzo was great value for Cashner, but him turning into what he is, which is an MVP type talent (especially while Cashner has been underwhelming at best for SD) is probably in the top 5-10% of all possible outcomes of that deal. Same for Arrieta becoming a top 3 pitcher in the whole NL in exchange for essentially nothing of value, and for Schwarber being able to come up here and be an excellent major league hitter less than a year after being drafted. By the same token, who could've guessed that Billy Beane, the poster child for valuing years of control on good players and getting as many bites at the apple as possible, would go insane last year and trade us a guy like Addison Russell? Or that Houston would take the pitcher that Theo/Jed were rumored to like ahead of the guy who was actually (we assume) the best option at #1 in Kris Bryant? Meanwhile (knock on wood) very few things have gone very badly - in terms of the talents people were talking about as cornerstones when (or soon after) Theo got here, the worst thing that's probably happened has been...? Almora not being that great in AA? I don't know if you call it luck, but that very few things have gone very badly - while a few things have gone as well as we could've ever hoped - certainly is part of the reason we are already as good as we are in year 4.

A White Sox fan I know (statistically minded and totally un meatball) has posted on Twitter about how fun we are the last 2 games. It's awesome to see other fans gushing too.

Two thumbs up to this post

Castro is on a one-man "[expletive] you David" mission and I love it.

Coomer just said Pat has been doing games in STL for a long time with the Cubs 'and the Brewers'. Unless I'm much mistaken, Hughes never would have done a Brewers game in STL as they were in the AL until he came to the Cubs (and it was pre-interleague).

I mean we post this every day these days but if Baez is fixed or at least close to it and Castro is back to being ok, holy [expletive] crap

Unfortunately that's pretty much impossible. We're playing them in the NLDS if at all.

They don't have an 'extremely high' strand rate. They have the highest strand rate in the HISTORY of baseball. It's unsustainable and hilariously so (which the Cubs have shown to some extent these last 1 1/3 games).

Top 25 games ------------------------ Hawaii at (1) Ohio State (3:30 pm, BTN) Middle Tennessee at (2) Alabama (4 pm, SEC Network) Stephen F. Austin at (3) TCU (3:30 pm, FS1) Lamar at (4) Baylor (7:30 pm, FSN – Regional) (7) Oregon at (5) Michigan State (8 pm, ABC) Jacksonville State at (6) Auburn (12 pm, SEC Network) Idaho at (8) USC (8 pm, Pac-12 Network) (9) Notre Dame at Virginia (3:30 pm, ABC) (10) Georgia at Vanderbilt (3:30 pm, CBS) South Florida at (11) Florida State (11:30 am, ESPN) Appalachian State at (12) Clemson (12:30 pm, ESPN3) (13) UCLA at UNLV (10:30 pm, CBSSN) (14) LSU at (25) Mississippi State (9:15 pm, ESPN) Tulane at (15) Georgia Tech (3:30 pm, FSN/ESPN3) Ball State at (16) Texas A&M (7 pm, ESPNU) Fresno State at (17) Ole Miss (3:30 pm, ESPN2) Toledo at (18) Arkansas (4 pm, SEC Network – Alternate) (19) Oklahoma at (23) Tennessee (6 pm, ESPN) (20) Boise State at BYU (10:15 pm, ESPN2) (21) Missouri at Arkansas State (7 pm, ESPN3) (22) Arizona at Nevada (7 pm, CBSSN) Utah State at (24) Utah (9 pm Friday, ESPN2) Other nationally available games --------------------------------------- Louisiana Tech at Western Kentucky (8 pm Thursday, FS1) Miami at Florida Atlantic (8 pm Friday, FS1) Oregon State at Michigan (12 pm, ABC) Buffalo at Penn State (12 pm, ESPN2) Kansas State at UTSA (12 pm, FS1) Miami (OH) at Wisconsin (12 pm, ESPNU) Bowling Green at Maryland (12 pm, BTN – Regional) Western Illinois at Illinois (12 pm, BTN – Regional) Indiana State at Purdue (12 pm, ESPNEWS) Army at UConn (12 pm, CBSSN) Houston at Louisville (12 pm, FSN/ESPN3) Wake Forest at Syracuse (12 pm, ACC Network/ESPN3) Howard at Boston College (1 pm, ESPN3) Sacramento State at Washington (2 pm, Pac-12 Network – Regional) UMass at Colorado (2 pm, Pac-12 Network – Regional) UTEP at Texas Tech (3 pm, FSN) Monmouth at Central Michigan (3 pm, ESPN3) Washington State at Rutgers (3:30 pm, ESPNU) Minnesota at Colorado State (3:30 pm, CBSSN) Tulane at Georgia Tech (3:30 pm, FSN/ESPN3) Furman at Virginia Tech (3:30 pm, ESPN3) Murray State at Northern Illinois (3:30 pm, ESPN3) Eastern Illinois at Northwestern (4 pm, ESPNEWS) Iowa at Iowa State (4:30 pm, FOX) San Diego State at California (5 pm, Pac-12 Network) Eastern Kentucky at NC State (6 pm, ESPN3) North Carolina A&T at North Carolina (6 pm, ESPN3) NC Central at Duke (6 pm, ESPN3) Pittsburgh at Akron (6 pm, ESPN3) Delaware State at Kent State (6 pm, ESPN3) Western Michigan at Georgia Southern (6 pm, ESPN3) East Carolina at Florida (7 pm, ESPN2) Memphis at Kansas (7 pm, ESPN3) Charleston Southern at Troy (7 pm, ESPN3) Marshall at Ohio (7 pm, ESPN3) Nicholls State at UL Monroe (7 pm, ESPN3) North Texas at SMU (7 pm, ESPN3) Northwestern State at UL Lafayette (7 pm, ESPN3) Prairie View at Texas State (7 pm, ESPN3) Kentucky at South Carolina (7:30 pm, SEC Network) Central Arkansas at Oklahoma State (7:30 pm, FSN – Regional) South Alabama at Nebraska (8 pm, BTN) Florida International at Indiana (8 pm, BTN – Alternate) Temple at Cincinnati (8 pm, ESPNEWS) Tulsa at New Mexico (8 pm, ESPN3) San Jose State at Air Force (10:15 pm, ESPNU) UCF at Stanford (10:30 pm, FS1) Cal Poly at Arizona State (11 pm, Pac-12 Network)

Not playing on Opening Day of the season is going to be weird. Cubs open on Tuesday.