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Chicago Cubs Thread - Playoff Push Pending

Baez is entertaining. Venables sent him, but it may be he knew Javy wasn't stopping so why not?

Good to see Bryant, Rizzo and Baez make offensive contributions.

First time Jeffress blew a save in the ninth inning this season. The other BS was an eighth inning appearance. He got the win on both occasions.
 
Jeffress advanced numbers don't look hot - and he's gotten out of a bunch of situations with good pitches - but he doesn't have the stuff he had 4 years ago. He's been great, no doubt, but hes not a swing and miss guy and can't count on that .152 BABIP against all the time. Would love for Kimbrel to be Kimbrel again and we can go Wick/Jeffress/Kimbrel to finish off games.
 
DaDeacs said:
Have not clinched a spot yet, but up 5.5 on 2nd place with 12 to play. The Cards and Brewers have to play 8 more times in the next couple of weeks, so I am going to assume they won't catch up unless one team sweeps, but that would knock out the other one - and the Reds schedule is tough. The biggest challenge for the Cubs is their own schedule - with 8 of the 12 remaining games against 3 teams currently in the playoffs from the AL Central. The Cubs are tied for the 2 seed right now, and if they can win the division, they will get home field against a wild card team or the lowest ranked 2nd place finisher - which at this rate looks like the Cards, Phils, Giants or maybe Marlins. I am pretty confident in a 3 game series for the Cubs against any of those teams knowing Yu and Hendricks will go game 1 & 2 - except maybe the Cards who have a 4 deep rotation. Phillies have two good arms, but only Wheeler is scary as a lefty, the Fish have some young arms, but nothing dominant outside of Sixto.

Should be a good final couple weeks.
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Interesting on playoff front. I haven’t seen a “clinched!” confirmation anywhere but the Cubs are 100 percent to make the playoffs on every standings I’ve seen.
 
Cubs might be 100% on projections but not by math. If they lose the remaining games they will finish with 31 losses. At this point in time Pittsburgh is the only team to exceed that total. Looks good but no clinch.
 
Magic number is 8 with 10 to go, which is odd. The reason for it is the Cards only having 23 losses - but they aren't scheduled to play 60 games, so i think the number should be more like 6, since the Cards winning out is 35-23, but who knows really. Reds are in 2nd and playing good baseball right now, they have some tough games coming up, but if they can sneak in, could be an upset contender rolling out Bauer and Gray in games 1&2 and with their offense clicking.
 
Hendricks with a gem. Jeffress with enough.

Vargas pinch hits in the eighth with runners at first and second and a LHP on the mound. I guess Ross didn't see Happ or Bote on the bench ?

First time for everything. When Cruz came up in the ninth I looked at Gametracker and it was all red in the top six boxes and white in the bottom three boxes. No blue anywhere. The walk seemed sensible.
 
Final week with the Cubs in first and a 3.5 game lead over the Cards, 4.5 over the Reds an Brewers. Brew crew finish with three against the Reds and five vs. the Cards. Reds have the Brewers and three against the Twins. Cards play three against the Royals and then the Brewers. Cubs play four at Pittsburgh and three vs. the White Sox.

Maybe the bats wake up against the Pirates and find inspiration against the White Sox to gain momentum for the postseason. It's just as likely this team scuffles this week and folds. These guys look beat and without confidence at the plate. It's beginning to show on the field as well.

Wick to the IL with a left oblique strain and likely gone for the season. If Q returns it is unlikely he'll start.

Any silver linings or good news out there Cub fans?
 
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I'm not overreacting to two bad games. Just came off a 5 game win streak. Berrios is good - don't see those pitchers much. The offense sucks because the core 4 are all hitting terribly this year. It may not get better, but i still give us a chance in any series with Hendricks/Darvish going 1-2

Q starting tomorrow.
 
Also, would love to see Nick opt out this year and come back, would be a good solution for DH.
 
Lester and the bullpen combine to shut out the Pirates 5 zip. Schwarber bounces back from a tough night Sunday with 2 doubles to lead the offense. Cards lose to the Royals while the Reds beat the Brewers. Cubs lead division by 4.5 games over both Cards and Reds and magic number to win the Central is now 4.

I've watched a lot of the Cubs games this season (thanks MLB Extra Innings Package and Directv) and I don't think the Cubs will win it all. I'd like to see the Cubs win the Central and the 1st Round to qualify for the bubble in Texas. I guess anything could happen from that point on but I don't think the Cubs are playing good enough to beat either the Dodgers or the Padres.
 
The problem beating the Dodgers is that they struggle against lefties, and we have none of those.

If we had 1 or 2 more solid bullpen pieces, I think we would be ok in most series against anyone. And one more bat, obvs. Money and confusion around this shortened year likely stopped us from doing anything good at the deadline. Martinez was the right idea, wrong player - lefty masher is needed in the lineup with KB and Javy being negative offensive players this year. Osich is garbage, will see about Chafin, he looked shaky against the Twins, but it was 1 inning. In a short series, we go Hendo/YU/Lester, put Q in the pen, adds a solid lefty to the pen. In a 7 game series, assume we go Hendo/Yu/Q/Lester, assuming Q can start - doesn't add anything to the pen and we are relying on the offense to outscore whatever Q and Lester give up.

Dunno, I've seen enough at times to know they can be competitive. The Dodgers and Pads are clearly the ones to beat, but I also think if we go to their fan pages, they are likely saying they don't want to go into a series agains Yu and Hendricks.
 
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Adding on here - winning the central is key. That ensures we miss the Dodgers or Pads until the NLCS. Would much rather play Atlanta in the DS, assuming we can get by the Phils/Marlins/Whoever in the whatever they are going to call the first playoff round best of 3 thing.

Not saying Atlanta is easy, that offense is a murderers row with Acuna/Albies/Freeman, but they don't have a ton of nasty pitchers, most of their guys pitch to contact, which is better for the Cubs.
 
Cubs officially in playoffs. Magic number still 4 to clinch Central. 5 games left, 2 vs Pit, 3 vs ChiSox.

Q and Alzolay looked pretty good in tandem last night, could be a good option for a 3rd or 4th spot in the rotation for a long series.
 
Ah, the ol' disappearing late September bats. If they ever appeared for some of our dudes this season in the first place.

We gonna blow the division against the Pale Hose? That'd be some shit
 
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wsc8521s said:
Ah, the ol' disappearing late September bats. If they ever appeared for some of our dudes this season in the first place.

We gonna blow the division against the Pale Hose? That'd be some shit
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The White Sox have been struggling as well. A week ago, they were poised to be the AL #1 seed. Now, it's looking like they will play the Yankees in a #4 v. #5 death match.
 
Yeah, they'll def be motivated. Either way this team is cruising for a playoff bruising
 
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