Diary of a Chicago Sports Fan

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Losing at baseball while waiting for the Blackhawks and Phil Jackson irony

The Cubs and White Sox both lost Saturday, but the Cubs loss hurt a lot more. At the end of three, the Cubs were up 6-2 and Jake Arrieta was on the hill. Life was good. Arrieta ended up going 5.2 innings, allowing 3 runs. That should have been good enough, but it wasn't.

Strop lit

The Pirates exploded for 5 runs off Cubs relievers Brian Duensing and Pedro Strop in the 8th. Strope gave up the back breaker, a two run shot to Andrew McCutchen. Beyond the bullpen implosion, there were a lot of good things going on for the Cubs. Of course, Mr. Lincoln was enjoying the play until the incident.

Bryant and Russell rolling

Kris Bryant hit two homers for the Cubs. Addison Russell added a double, a triple and 3 RBIs. The Cubs have gotten generally good production from the bullpen, still. A couple of things to consider. I haven't bought into Brian Duensing. I hope he'll prove to be a reliable left out of the pen but I doubt it. For his career he's averaged about 6 strikeouts per 9 innings. In addition, Pedro Strop has been effective as a 7^th inning guy during his stint with the Cubs, but he hasn't always been a true shutdown guy. There's a reason Joe Maddon didn't trust him in the playoffs.

Maybe Jose wants to stay in Chicago

The White Sox got shellacked 6-0 by the Twins 6-0. White Sox ace and trading chip Jose Quintana gave up 5 runs in the first inning and the game was basically over. Quintana settled down after the first. He ultimately went 5.2 innings giving up 5 runs and 9 hits. The loss evened the Sox record at 5-5. Quintana has 3 of the Sox 5 losses and is carrying an ERA of 6.75. Quintana has been getting hit hard early. For the Sox to have a decent season, that trend needs to stop.

Not again

It would also be nice if Jose Abreu and Todd Frazier broke their bats out of the deep freeze at the start of a season. Abreu is hitting only .205 with an OPS of .475. Frazier is hitting.111 with an OPS of .485. This seems to be a pattern, get buried early then improve stats after the season is basically over.

It's not always what, sometimes it's when

Avisail Garcia and Matt Davidson have been providing the Sox offense up till this point. They may have decent seasons, but there will be some regression to the mean. Yoan Moncada, there's a place at the table waiting for you. The Sox still need help in center field but Charlie Tilson will probably out until late May.

No border incident

Just an oddity, Friday night all three Sox outfielders last name was Garcia. Kind of nice to have Garcias near a wall and it not lead to a discussion about immigration.

Some are saying the same thing about Phil.

Knicks GM, Phil Jackson, thinks Carmelo Anthony would probably better off somewhere else. It would probably have been better if Phil had come to that conclusion before signing Carmelo to a long term deal.

And the big story....

Now time to watch the Blackhawks. Go Hawks!

More next time.