More nervous now than I have been any game in this series. I think it's because when you fall down 3-1, while you still think your team can win, you can't help but ramp down the emotional intensity and at least least to some degree prepare for potential disappointment. Now we are at a point where we are still big dogs in the series but know everything becomes a lot more realistic if you can just take this game.
Yeah for some reason this feels like one of those games where we are all nervous and expecting a low scoring stress fest, and then the Cubs randomly put up 4-5 runs early and we coast.
he's a free agent after this year and we are very very interested in resigning him, yet were very very interested in resigning guys like Saad and ultimately didn't because the price tag was too high. Edit: And correct me if I'm wrong but Panarin wouldn't even be an RFA would he? He would go straight to UFA because of how he entered the league.
It's all hands on deck for an elimination game. Lester in a pinch tonight would not be a shocker either, but I'm sure Joe would rather save Lester for a game 7 appearance if at all possible. The only relievers right now I'm confident in are Montgomery, Strop, and Chapman. The others have done a decent job but with the season on the line in say the 7th inning, I would feel more confident with Lester than any of them other than Chapman. I'm still confident in Strop pitching. The only bad playoff outing he had was in garbage time against the Dodgers. That said, the FG guys seem to be speculating Joe hasn't been using him much because he's not physically right. I would still probably trust him pitching over Lackey but not by much.
There hasn't been a player ejected from a World Series game since 1987 and only 3 since 1934 and none of them were hitters ejected for calling balls and strikes. I'm not saying that it won't happen but I'm guessing a player would have to do something really glaring to get ejected from a World Series game.
More concern about West, I just read that he almost never calls the low strike, and the Cubs are really good at getting the low strike called. Conversely, he more frequently calls strikes in the higher part of the zone, and Perez is really good at getting high strikes called.
I wish the schedule layed out so that we could switch Hendricks and Arrieta around with both on full rest. West and his tiny strike zone seems like a nightmare umpire for an Arrieta/Tomlin matchup. Is there a website that shows a pitchers performance with specific umpires behind the plate.
I think hitters loved taking uppers before they were banned because it helped them stay focused with high energy levels during the long grind of daily baseball for 6 months. I am not sure how much it helps a pitcher going every 5 days.
I don't think we can argue that this isn't the biggest Cubs game of our lives as we've never been 2 wins from a championship before. This is what we've been waiting for our whole lives as Cubs fans.
Please God Mode Jake show up If I knew that Jake was showing up tonight, I would be pretty much 99.9% confident of a win. That's how awesome he was last year he was actually a guaranteed win every single time he pitched, no matter how big the spot, what team, etc. I mean it was such a shock when he gave up a freaking earned run that Dan Haren tweeted this after it happened once: [tweet]
[/tweet] God Mode Jake was so confident that he actually trolled opposing teams fans on twitter 3 days before a winner take all game and then went out and pitched a complete game shutout: [tweet]
[/tweet] God Mode Jake was so dominant that he had a 13 game stretch where he gave up 0 ER in a start 10 times and averaged 7 IP per start in those 13 games. That's right, a 13 game stretch where you could basically count on him to have a 7 IP 0 ER (1 ER at worst) start. We need you God Mode Jake, oh so bad, come out come out wherever you are.
There will be adjustments, probably injuries, opening week energy will die down. But they seem to be pretty good and Fred is using them well so I think it's more legit than not legit.