Bull

Theilbar has to be gone soon, right? When Steele comes back?

Amazing start from Gausman. Time to give Zeferjahn mop-up duty, or is Rea back to long man?

lol, sorry. Just finished a 40 page PhD paper minutes before the game started. I'm hopped up on coffee and my radar is hyper-sensitive to making sure arguments and logic are consistent. Also the illegible ESPN "yips" commercial may be causing some sort of psychosis in me.

elite defense underrated moment. PCA can attempt those catches because of Seiya's range. It doesn't show up as an out this time, but it doesn't become a double either. And next time, PCA makes the catch instead of second guessing himself and allowing it to drop in front of him.

3 runs over 5.2 innings is a 5.4 runs per 9. Well ahead of the average 4.47 runs per game. They absolutely did not suck against the starter. This is a crazy narrative for the best and most consistent offense in baseball.

69

80

They lead all of baseball (T-Atl) with games scoring 4+ runs with 79. They stand alone with games scoring 5 or more with 68 (the next closest is Atl with 44!) That's as consistent as you can get. There's really not anything more anyone should be asking of this offense than consistently putting up the type of numbers that should win you games. The Jekyll and Hyde false narrative needs to stop. This is a uniquely consistent offense.

They lead all of baseball (T-Atl) with games scoring 4+ runs with 79. They stand alone with games scoring 5 or more with 68 (the next closest is Atl with 44!) That's as consistent as you can get. There's really not anything more anyone should be asking of this offense than consistently putting up the type of numbers that should win you games.

In case you hadn't noticed, the Cubs now lead the majors in team OPS and runs per game.

Who the heck is Kay? **I know because I looked him up, but I honestly don't remember him pitching for the Cubs. I certainly don't remember it happening 13 times.

It looks like the D-Backs are walking into this series with their bullpen pretty gassed. They used 6 relievers yesterday, and GInkel and Clarke have pitched twice in the last three days. Their rotation is almost as decimated as ours was prior to the deadline, and Marte drama is still fresh. It looks like they are due to lose some steam. Therefore, I predict they sweep us.

This doesn't add up. The Cubs are 6 behind Milwaukee, 6 ahead of Arizona. If there's no way for the Cubs to catch Milwaukee, there's no way for the D-Backs to catch the Cubs. The Cubs are 2 games behind their Pythagorean expectations. The Brewers are expected to be one game better and the D-Backs are expected to be 3 games worse. The Brewers have a +161 run differential, the cubs a 115, Arizona, +9. Sooo... the Cubs *should* be 5 behind Mil and 11 ahead of Arizona. Projections suggest Milwaukee and the Cubs will finish out a little better than their current win percentage, and that Arizona will finish out around .500. You really have this backward. The one thing you have right is that the head-to-head games matter. The Cubs have 7 head-to-head matchups remaining with Milwaukee. If they could "basically take AZ out of the picture" they could just as easily reel the Brew Crew back in. What is likely is that Milwaukee and the Cubs remain on their current top 5 team in baseball trajectory and that AZ remains slightly above average and just out of the playoff picture, regardless of the outcome of this particular 3 game series.

Loading it up with righties. Happ is to be considered a lefty from here on out.

What a luxury it is to have elite defense at nearly every position.