UMFan83

Great start: Fields doesn't seem to concerned and noted that Chase was part of Fields' personal camp he held 2 weeks ago with WR, but still a less than ideal start for him.

Making the endpoint more arbitrary, 22-15 since June 9th, which is 96 win pace. They'll need to play at least at that level the rest of the year to have a shot.

About as quiet of a final 3 innings as you can get during a Cubs-Cardinal game. Good stuff. Brewers lose, so the Cubs will be 6.5 games behind Milwaukee/Cincinnati in the division and 5.5 behind the Giants/Diamondbacks for the 2nd and 3rd Wild Card spots.

A grand slam here would certainly be frustrating.... Or walking in runs because the Cubs have so few reliable middle relievers

90 through 5 for Taillon. Probably 1 more inning and pray that 7 runs is enough for the pen to hold

FWIW, all of the teams ahead of us for realistic playoff spots: Reds tied with Diamondbacks 3-3 in the 6th Brewers lead Braves 2-1 in the 5th Phillies lead Guardians 4-3 in the 7th Giants trail Nationals 6-0 in the 6th Marlins lead Rockies 2-1 in the 7th Padres lost 3-1 to the Tigers If any or all of the Reds, Brewers or Giants lose, the Cubs can gain some ground with a win (can only gain 0.5 games if Giants lose, 1 game if the other 2 lose)

Forgot about the Padres. The Padres and Cubs have the 3rd and 4th best RD in the NL and they are both much more likely to sell than buy. Crazy season.

RD of some teams: Orioles (60-38): +46 Cubs (47-51): +43 Twins (52-48): +42 Blue Jays (54-45): +36 Red Sox (52-47): +36 Giants (54-45): +26 Diamondbacks (54-45): +15 Phillies (52-46): +5 Brewers (55-44): -4 Reds (54-46): -7 Marlins (53-47): -23 7 of those 11 teams are in a playoff position, 3 are within 2 games of the playoffs and the Cubs are 6 games out of the playoffs.

Brewers beat the Braves tonight meaning the Cubs will gain no ground in the division or WC tonight. Running out of time to gain the ground we need to avoid selling. I know some people are saying sell no matter what and that’s fine but I’ll hold out hope until I can’t anymore. I do think even if we sell it should be a light sell and if we’re trading guys like Bellinger or Stroman we should be looking for pieces in return that can help in 2024 or 2025 at the latest.

Nice W. 3 of 4 was the minimum and the Cubs have a chance to do that tomorrow

I just assumed they were hitting back to back like yesterday, my bad. OK well get out Gorman to lead off the 9th so he can't tie it. Or score a bunch of runs here and make it futile.

Nice job Wisdom! 2 nice plays out there. Got through Goldschmidt and Arenado can't tie the game in the 9th so good stuff.

Holy horsefeathers how did Nootbar catch that while falling away from the ball? Damn....he's saved 3 runs today with catches near the wall. The first was against the wall with a runner on 1st and 2 outs that would have scored then this one was falling down at the track with runners on 1st and 2nd and 2 outs, both of whom would have scored if he doesn't catch it

Cincinnati won today, so the Cubs can't gain ground in the WC race today. A win will keep them 6 back of Cincinnati and Philly if they win tonight.

Resuming at 5:50pm per twitter

Seemed like they had trouble finishing from what I could tell, which is I guess not that surprising given the injuries up top. Vietnam also mucked the game up quite a bit. I guess the concerning thing is that the old guard (Morgan, Rapinoe, O'Hara) did not look great for stretches of the game. And that PK by Morgan was terrible. Netherlands are going to be difficult with a similar performance, but still time for them to get it together.

It can keep raining for all I care, call the game!

The way this game is going, not getting 1-2 more with bases loaded and 1 out may hurt

Belli! What a nice piece of hitting

I really cant complain about bad calls after yesterday but woof this dude is terrible.

Really feels like with a couple of not even major additional moves in the offseason this team could have been a lot better. Would have loved to have seen if Jed could have made a couple of minor moves at the beginning of July to fill a couple gaps and help the Cubs play into the position of buyers. Instead we continually see the Cubs holes costing them games.

Cool Arenado up with the bases loaded in a tie game against a pitcher who isnt throwing strikes. Thank the umps for bailing him out on the first pitch by calling a strike lmao and a wild pitch gives the Cardinals the lead. Nice work

Just for fun, a look at how the 2016 Cubs are doing in 2023... Retired/out of baseball: Miguel Montero, Ben Zobrist, Dexter Fowler, David Ross, Matt Szczur, Chris Coghlan, John Lester, Jake Arrieta, Jason Hammel, John Lackey, Travis Wood, Hector Rondon, Albert Almora, Trevor Cahill, Justin Grimm, Pedro Strop, Adam Warren, Joe Smith, Clayton Richard, Felix Pena, Neil Ramirez (only looking at Cubs position players that played 20 games in 2016 or are Kyle Schwarber or as a pitcher had at least 8 appearances) Anthony Rizzo, Yankees: .244/.332/.381/.713 and 0.9 bWAR (too lazy to do this on FG) Addison Russell, Kiwoom of KBO: .286/.339/.400/.739 Kris Bryant, Rockies: .252/.337/.380/.717 and -0.5 bWAR Jorge Soler, Marlins: .244/.339/.506/.845 and 1.3 bWAR, 2023 All-Star Jason Heyward, Dodgers: .251/.350/.465/.815 and 0.9 bWAR (Dodgers made some adjustments but more importantly have given him almost no PAs against lefties) Javier Baez, Tigers: .227/.264/.341/.604 and 0.7 bWAR (defense still plays) Willson Contreras, Cardinals: .242/.339/.424/.763 and 1.5 bWAR Tommy LaStella, Mariners: .190/.292/.238/.530 and -0.1 bWAR Kyle Schwarber, Phillies: .187/.313/.440/.752 and -1.0 bWAR Kyle Hendricks, Cubs: 3-4, 3.38 ERA and 1.0 bWAR in 11 starts Mike Montgomery, Oklahoma City (AAA): 1-1, 3.34 ERA in 8 starts Carl Edwards Jr, Nationals: 1-3, 3.69 ERA and 0.6 bWAR in 32 appearances Aroldis Chapman, Royals/Rangers: 5-2, 2.04 ERA and 1.3 bWAR in 37 appearances Spencer Patton, Athletics: 0-0, 6.75 ERA and -0.1 bWAR in 4 appearances Rob Zastryzny, Pirates: 1-0, 5.29 ERA and -0.3 bWAR in 18 appearances Total of 6.2 bWAR with 1 win coming from a current Cub. Not really making a point with this, just wanted to go back and see where everyone is at. Really no one from the 2016 team is a star in 2023 except Soler who is literally an All-Star this year. Would not have expected that to be the case just 7 years removed from a 103 World Series winner with a young core in their early 20's.

Drew Smyly last 9 appearances 4.2 IP, 5 R 5.2 IP, 3 R 6 IP, 3 R 6 IP, 5 R 5 IP, 0 R 3.2 IP, 7 R 3.2 IP, 3 R 4 IP, 4 R 6 IP, 5 R 3 IP, 4 R (so far) There are a couple adequate appearances in there but for the most part he's not going long into games and he's giving up a healthy amount of runs almost every time out.

Damn nice catch by Nootbar against the ivy to save a run