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In the Cubs most important game of the year, their stars
were Jose Quintana and Victor Caratini. The
Cubs bullpen also played a strong supporting role. Justin Wilson struck out pinch hitter Manny
Pina with the bases loaded to close out the seventh inning. Jorge De La Rosa pitched a scoreless eighth
for the Cubs and Pedro Strop retired the Brewers in order in the ninth to pick
up his 13th save. Their
efforts made for a 3-0 Cubs win.
Happiness is a Victor Caratini
The Cubs recorded only three hits, two by Victor Caratini. The Brewers hurt themselves by committing two
errors in the second inning when the Cubs pushed across two runs. The Cubs first run scored when Brewers
starter, Jhoulys Chacin, tried to pick Javy Baez off second and threw the ball
into center field allowing Ben Zobrist to score. Zobrist had reached base on an error by
Brewers second baseman, Jonathan Schoop.
After the Chacin throwing error allowed Zobrist to score
and Baez to advance to third, Victor Caratini hit a soft liner of the glove of
a leaping Schoop to score Baez. The Cubs
final run scored when Caratini doubled home Tommy LaStella in the seventh
inning.
Remembering the little people
It feels like the Cubs big guys are struggling down the
stretch. Thankfully guys like Caratini
and recent pickups, Jesse Chavez and Jorge De La Rosa have been able to fill in
the gaps, at least to some extent.
Things went bad, real bad. People got hurt.
Has any team ever had a worse offseason signing free
agent pitchers than the Cubs? Darvish
has basically lost the year to injury and close, Brandon Morrow has loss the
second half of the season with health issues while Tyler Chatwood has lost the
strike zone. In a perverse way, it
highlights the resiliency of the Cubs front office. Cole Hamels has been a great acquisition, as
has Jesse Chavez. Jorge De La Rosa has also
been a useful lefty out of the pen.
Plenty of bad to go around
While the Cubs have been snake bitten in terms of signing
free agent pitchers, the 2017 crop of free agent hurlers pretty much makes you
want to hurl. Alex Cobb has had a
terrible year in Baltimore. Cobb sits at
5-15 with an ERA of 4.90, though that
ERA has been going down. In addition Cobb has at least pitched in 152.1
innings. Lance Lynn was another free
agent starter who had a decent track record going into this season. Lynn has
split his season between the Twins and Yankees, compiling a record of 9-10 with
an ERA of 5.01.
The Big Three?
Free agent closers were no bargain either. Cubs fans are well aware of Brandon Morrow’s
injury issues, but the other high profile relievers in the class of 2017 have
had issues too. Wade Davis is closing for
the Colorado Rockies. Davis leads the NL
in saves going 39-45, but his ERA is an unsightly 4.63. His FIP is also higher than in recent years
at 4.05. Some of that is no doubt is a
reflection of pitching at Coors Field, but he doesn’t seem to be the same
pitcher he was a couple of seasons ago.
The other part of MLB’s free agent closer trilogy, Greg
Holland, has also had a rough go of it.
Holland has pitched for the Cardinals and Nationals this season. Thus far he’s worked 41 innings and put up an
ERA of 5.05. All in all, it was a
terrible year to take a swim in the pitching free agent pool.
Wake me up when the White Sox season is over
The White Sox lost their seventh game in a row. The latest defeat was by a count of 6-3 at
the hands of the equally bad Kansas City Royals. Dylan Covey had another ineffective start for
the White Sox, reinforcing the idea he won’t help the club long term.
The coast was clear for Nate Jones
In sifting through the wreckage of this season and this
game in particular, I see Nate Jones was back on the mound for the Sox last
night. Jones pitched a scoreless inning since Reynaldo Lopez didn’t have a lead
to protect.
Honestly, finding reasons to watch the Sox for the rest
of this season is becoming increasingly difficult. I’ll concentrate on that in the next couple
of days and see what I can come up with.
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