July 5, 2018
The Cubs have an off day, similar to the last 5 playing the
sisters of the poor. This is also known as the American League Central. The
only good team, Cleveland, has the worst record of all the division leaders yet
have an insurmountable edge over the second place team. All the other division
races have a ways to go before you can predict the winner.
In a previous post, I talked about the Cubs pension for beating
up on bad teams. A home stand beginning with Minnesota and Detroit is a good
way to build momentum. The Cubs usually
win with great pitching and defense. However, in the three games against
Minnesota the Cubs surrendered 25 runs and still swept the series scoring 35. In the
next 2 wins over Detroit, the Cubs overcame a 3-0 deficit and came back to tie
and then take the lead. They are really good at this comeback thing. Excellent relief pitching wraps it up, Cubs
win 5-3. Behind Quintana pitching, rookie Bote first home run and a Baez steal of home the Cubs win game 2,
5-2. Speaking of Baez, why do pitchers keep throwing him
strikes?
The Cubs have games remaining against the second worst team
in baseball, Kansas City, 2 more in Detroit and a late September 3 game series
against the White Sox. Aside from Cleveland, so far the Cubs are 7-1 against the A.L.
Central. The problem is Milwaukee plays these teams as well.
Upcoming is a payback series against the Reds. The only real
hiccup all year was in Cincinnati. The Cubs have pitching, hitting and defense. What I recently
discovered is how well they run the bases. They are phenomenal from first to
third on singles.
.
In my last post I raved about the young pitching. In the last
week Giolito gets lit up and Covey reverts to 2017 and gets rocked twice. The
Sox go 2-4 against last place Texas and a better than I thought last place
Cincinnati. The Reds are over .500 since Jim Riggleman took over as manager.
After getting their clocks cleaned in the first 2 games in
Texas, the White Sox get another quality start from Reynaldo Lopez and win game 3. He has been
the most consistent starter this year. In Kansas City, James Shields has turned his
season around and had another good start in game 1. The Sox were leading 3-1 in
the 8th inning and although he had only thrown 88 pitches, Renteria
takes him out. Because he mismanaged his bullpen in Texas, he had to bring in
Volstad who usually doesn’t relieve in this situation. He struggled and coughed
up the lead. He may have fared better if not for a dumb play by Matt Davidson. Let me
set it up. Bases loaded one out grounder. He runs toward first base, then
instead of taking the sure out comes short and throws wild and late trying to get the
runner at home. Next batter hits what should have been a third
out sacrifice fly.
In game 2 it’s 4-0 after the first four batters, Sox cut the
lead to 4-2. Giolito gives up a 3 run homer
making 7-2 in favor of the Reds. Sox come back to tie game at 7. Bottom eighth is typical White Sox. Reds' Hamilton
singles, moves to second on sacrifice and easily steals third as the pitcher
doesn’t even look back. Ground ball to Sanchez, he holds Hamilton but doesn’t
take a step toward third to make Hamiltion retreat. He throws to first to get
the batter out. Meanwhile Hamilton runs home to make it 8-7. Red hot Avisail
Garcia hits his second home run in top of the 9th to tie the game. Then, in extra innings a walk and two bad errors by the Reds loads the bases. They looked
just like the Sox. Moncada clears the bases with a triple and they tack on
another to win 12-8.
Game 3 Sox jump out
to 3-0 lead. Covey is perfect through innings but proceeds to give 6 runs in
fourth, game over. Now they go to Houston who swept them at home.
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