raw

Strike 1 was the worst call I've ever seen.

Brisket chili is better than anything anyone who hasn't had it has ever eaten.

Funny how a shutout (which featured 3 warning track fly balls) against the best pitcher of this decade means this team is doomed. The Cubs don't have to change anything up. Sure the offense isn't hitting everything in sight. But the pitching, which was better than everyone else's this year, has still been better than everyone else's.

Lessons for everyone else. Javy is never wrong.

Why wouldn't they just use Stripling in relief of Hill and then start Urias in Game 4 and only expect a couple innings out of him? That way you have the hope of getting more SP innings in Game 4, and Stripling gets the benefit of a lineup oriented for a LHP. In the Cubs' case the latter doesn't make much difference(especially with Montero starting), but still. You (as the Dodgers) know someone other than Kershaw is going to have to start 4 of the final 5 games. You also know that your starters have averaged 3.1 innings per start. Knowing that, you can reasonably expect 4.2 bullpen innings per day. You use Stripling tomorrow for 3 innings, you can't use him Wednesday. You use him for 3 innings Wednesday, it doesn't matter as much because you don't expect to need him at all Thursday (and if you do need him, you most likely are going to lose the game anyway). Same logic goes for having to use guys like Baez, Blanton, Dayton and Avilan for back-to-back days. Of course, Urias was just named Game 4 starter so all this may be moot.

Yea , I mean, one year isnt going to ruin a guy if thats how it goes down. Question is when you draft a guy. Fox obviously has a little over half the season the right the ship, but he'd have to finish at least .500 from here on out to make any case to fans right? I'm at the point where it'd have to be a miraculous finish to the season to keep Fox. Granted, I wasn't a huge fan of the Fox hire, but if you keep Fox around another year, you risk a lame duck situation. There's no way you can allow Loggains to coach this offense again. And if you get a new OC and still Fox doesn't right the ship, you risk going into 2018 with a 5th OC in 5 years if your new head coach wants to bring in his own guy. I feel like if you bring Fox back for 2017, you have to bring him back for the year after also just for the sake of continuity. But then if you're Pace....you're risking going out the door with him if things aren't heavily headed in the right direction by that point.

Connecting the dots from the things I've read, I think the Dodgers will have Urias ready to go tomorrow as a piggyback to Hill, in case he can't get out of the 4th again. Obviously, they'd reasonably prefer for Hill to give them 6, but realistically he may only give them 4. I think they'd then try to go 3 with Urias and then turn it over to the pen. That would mean a bullpen game in Game 4, with I assume Stripling getting the start, hoping to get 3+ out of him. LA really can't afford to have Hill, Urias, and Maeda all pitch 3 1/3 on consecutive days, so the best approach for them is to piggy back 2 of them when they can to save the bullpen, have a bullpen heavy game in the other, and then hope to use the Kershaw start in Game 5 (who are we kidding, he's pitching it) to give most of the bullpen rest. Maeda could be on extra rest in Game 6 and then Hill on regular rest, Game 7 with Kershaw available out of the pen.

It's about time to count moral victories for this team. Besides their 1 win, the Bears actually had 4th quarter leads in 3 other games....including 2 of them down to the opponent's final drive. So, that's......something, right? In all seriousness though, do the Bears consider getting rid of Fox after this season, barring miracle? We heard all this stuff about his improvement with teams in Year 2. We heard all about his professional atmosphere. Players being held accountable. Players will play disciplined. He would bring in top notch coordinators. But this year is a clear step down from last year's rebuilding squad. The way that injuries are being handled and press conference questions being answered is bad. The team is being penalized among the top 10 in the league, many of which have come at crucial times in the red zone. And there has been no progress out of Fangio's unit, despite having more talent than last year....and the OC has been a near disaster. With the likelihood of a new offensive coordinator being hired and a new QB being drafted, it makes very little sense to allow Fox to hire his 3rd OC in 3 years. It makes less sense to draft a QB in the 1st round (which they should), who you hope to have for the next 5 years, and pair him with a defensive minded head coach who is already going to be 62 years old. I'd really like to see them make a serious run at Kyle Shanahan. Shanahan has the #1 offense so far this year, but this is his 6th top 10 offense in his 9 years as an OC. He got an elite level season out of Matt Schaub, out of RG3, and now out of Matt Ryan. And if the Bears want to keep Hoyer around as a veteran backup/stopgap, Shanahan has coached him in Cleveland.

Agreed. They should have worked counts against a guy that only had 1 3-ball count all game. Should have also been able to make hard contact and string multiple hits together against a pitcher that nobody makes hard contact and string multiple hits together against.....nevermind the fact that the Cubs did actually make a decent amount of hard contact.

But this is a best of 7 and we will see Kershaw twice if we don't sweep LA.....and maybe even still then.

LOL. The only Cubs not to strike out today? Rizzo, Heyward, and Russell.

I think Bryant saw the catcher set up so wide and assumed it would be out of the zone. But Jansen badly missed right down the middle.

Well......I feel good when anyone but the best non-Cub SP and RP in baseball pitches this series against the Cubs.

Kershaw coming back. Contreras, Almora, Ross?

Damn Javy, fooled me with the Sosa hop.

This just isn't true at all, in the case of Maddon.

Actually, correct me if I'm wrong...... but the runner at 2B doesn't have to run does he if 1st and 2nd and the runner going to 2B is thrown out first, right?

He was standing on the bag when Javy let it drop.

All four balls were out of the zone according to Gameday. 2 of them were strikes if Kershaw was pitching.

BAEZ YOU'RE horsefeathering GORGEOUS!

Ugh Maddon. Should have never faced Gonzalez, even though he didn't really walk him.

Been everywhere but where it should be.

No. Not because of Gonzalez though. Moreso because of Reddick, Peterson, Grandal and Towles after him.

Eh. Russell and Rizzo are your only hopes there.

Alright Cyle. Now let's get some runs, at least some damn hits.