Thursday, June 14, 2018

Exciting Baseball for Cubs, White Sox


June 12, 2018

There are many people who think baseball is boring. The games move slow, not enough runs etc. However, regardless if you love the game, there has been plenty of excitement in Chicago.

The Cubs coming off a successful road trip, albeit against bad competition, came home against a good Philadelphia Phillies team for three games. The Cubs lost the first game, ending their four game win streak. It looked as though they would lose game two. They coughed up a three run lead. Brandon Morrow was brought on with the game tied and proceeded to give up his first homer as a Cub, leaving them two behind. The Cubs mounted a comeback loading the bases with one out. Zobrist hits a weak grounder to the pitcher for force out at home. Cub fans groan because coming up is the under-achieving Jason Heyward hitting .129 against left hand pitching. In what seemed like an eternity the count goes to 2-2. Heyward hits the walk off grand slam. Talk about excitement. Wrigley goes bananas.

This propels them to win 3 more in a row. This streak ends when the great Joe Maddon pinch hits for Hendricks in the FIFTH with the Cubs only one behind. Runners on first and second and no outs, you let your pitcher bunt. La Stella may be a great pinch hitter, the operative word being pinch. Save him for later, but Joe burns that option as he grounds into a double play. The next game against the Brewers would turn out better. In a great pitching duel, Cubs score one in the eighth to tie the game with a single by Jason Heyward against one of the top left handed relievers, Josh Hader. Not many teams are going to beat the Cubs in a battle of bullpens. Cubs win an extra inning thriller.

One of the reasons the Cubs are a good team is great defense, just look at the Ian Happ game of three electrifying catches. Almora gets to everything in the center and Heyward makes hard catches look easy. The infield is strong especially up the middle. The catcher picks people off and shuts down running games. This is fun to watch.

The White Sox were even more exciting than the Cubs. After taking 2 of 3 against the Brewers, they went to Minnesota. They should have won the first game. Their best pitcher, Reynaldo Lopez, goes 7 innings giving no runs on two hits. For some inexplicable reason Ricky Renteria brings in Nate Jones who blows the game as only he can. They win two of the next three for a split against a team that usually gives them trouble.

More excitement at Fenway Park in Boston. What are the odds that Dylan Covey would out-duel Chris Sale? The Sox manufactured one run and that’s all they needed. Covey goes 6 innings, the improving relief shuts down the best hitting team in baseball. Game 2 Carlos Rodon looked really good and was getting better as the game wore on, which is a good omen. He could possibly have gotten the win if not for porous defense committing 3 errors. Game 3 featured another strong performance by Lopez. Six strong innings of 1 run baseball. Tim Anderson makes a heads up play scoring from second on a infield ground ball to give the Sox a 3-1 lead. In the seventh inning, after a walk, Renteria puts in Nate Jones. He gets one out, walks a batter and hits another to load the bases. Maybe Renteria is learning as he pulls Jones before he can do more damage. Jason Fry overcomes an error and gets out of the jam and pitches the the 8th. With the Sox leading 3-2, Daniel Palka, who is among the leaders in exit velocity, crushes a 2 run double in the 9th for insurance. Soria goes 3 up-3 down for the save.

The Sox are playing much better, winning 4 out of 6 games against teams with the best records in the National and American Leagues. The hitters for the most part are struggling, and the defense is lousy. However, they are getting some good starting pitching and with the exception of Nate Jones, the relief has improved greatly. The additions of Fry, Rondon and Soria are the primary reasons. They also have been getting good situational use from Volstad, Avilan and newly called up Xavier Cedeno.  While this may make fans happy, but better things are up ahead. But, they probably still lose 100 games.


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