The Chicago Cubs don’t have anything to show within the remaining 25 video games of the 2022 season, however they plan on taking part in out the schedule anyway.
The bullpen blew a ninth-inning lead Thursday in a 4-3 loss to the Cincinnati Reds, but it surely was a wonderful day to play.
“What you expect heaven on earth is, is pitching at Wrigley on a day like today,” Cubs starter Adrian Sampson.
Sampson allowed one run in six innings, however the Reds scored two within the ninth off Mark Leiter Jr. to take the sequence between National League Central non-contenders.
While watching the Cubs play out the string and Reds outfielders lose fly balls within the solar, your thoughts tends to wander.
Here are eight random ideas on a lazy afternoon at Wrigley Field.
1. With Willson Contreras positioned on the injured checklist Tuesday with a left ankle sprain, the Cubs have nobody on the lively roster who performed for the 2016 World Series champions.
The Reds, in the meantime, have one in outfielder Albert Almora. With Contreras a free agent and Jason Heyward on his method out, Kyle Hendricks would be the solely participant left in 2023 with a 2016 ring. Contreras hasn’t been dominated out for the remainder of the season, however with free company looming he’s higher off resting his ankle till subsequent 12 months.
2. The introduced crowd of 23,910 was the Cubs’ lowest in a season of full capability (excluding 2020 and ‘21) since Sept. 4, 2013.
They drew 20,696 that day for a sport towards the Miami Marlins. As lengthy because the Cubs are getting 15,000 or fewer followers heading via the turnstiles, they may as properly shut the higher deck and let everybody sit within the decrease bowl, like the nice previous days of the early Nineteen Sixties when nobody anticipated them to compete.
3. Manager David Ross stated he plans to maintain Hayden Wesneski within the bullpen.
The rookie threw 5 shutout innings in aid Tuesday in his major-league debut. Wesneski threw 130 innings within the New York Yankees system in 2021 and has pitched a mixed 115 innings this season within the minors plus the one look with the Cubs. He’s not in peril of being overused, and so long as he’s going 5 innings, it makes extra sense to offer Wesneski a begin or two earlier than the season ends.
4. Former Cubs supervisor Joe Maddon has turn out to be the main spokesman of the anti-analytics motion.
He instructed The Athletic’s Jayson Stark on a podcast: “The art of the game is really being held secondarily, where it’s the numerical component that everybody wants to promote. And with those that are promoting this — this is with all due respect — it’s that they just don’t understand the game as much as they understand math.”
Strong stuff, but it surely makes you marvel if Maddon ever will get one other managing job in a sport run by Ivy League executives who firmly imagine within the significance of analytics.
5. Ian Happ made two wonderful performs in left area and hopes to be thought-about for a Gold Glove Award.
And when Happ jumped towards the wall down the left-field line Thursday to attempt to catch a foul fly off the bat of T.J. Friedl, virtually everybody within the ballpark had the identical thought: What if Moises Alou had caught that ball in the identical spot in Game 6 of the 2003 National League Championship Series?
6. The Cubs have hit 65 dwelling runs at Wrigley, together with Seiya Suzuki’s go-ahead homer within the eighth.
They ranked twenty second in dwelling runs at dwelling coming into the day. Cubs pitchers started the day ranked sixth-worst in dwelling runs allowed at dwelling (83) and served up yet another to the Reds’ Kyle Farmer. The disparity is mirrored of their 29-40 document at Wrigley.
When Theo Epstein took over as Cubs president in 2011, he was requested if he would attempt to tailor the roster to the ballpark.
“Executives here have thought of these things for decades,” Epstein stated. “The day games, the night life in Chicago, the way the field plays when the wind is blowing in, blowing out, the cut of the grass, the lack of foul territory, the outfielders having to deal with brick walls with fans on top of them, a big media market. … We’re not going to reinvent the wheel but try to be thorough and have a thoughtful approach to all issues.”
Epstein acquired or drafted energy hitters Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant and Kyle Schwarber in his first few years, and now Jed Hoyer says the Cubs want extra energy hitters in 2023.
The wind has blown within the majority of the time this 12 months, negating the little energy the Cubs have on the roster. According to workforce figures, the wind has blown out solely 25 instances in 2022, together with Thursday, whereas blowing in for 34 video games. There have been 10 crosswind video games.
7. Ross was requested how he would scout himself as supervisor.
It was not a simple query to reply, and through a long-winded response he stated: “This is not the standard that I want to hold us to. The standard is really high here.”
That all the time ought to be the case. But if the usual actually was that prime, the Cubs wouldn’t have put collectively a roster that’s on tempo for 94 losses.
8. The Cubs and Reds play the ultimate six video games of the season towards one another.
Thanks to modifications to the unique schedule that had been made after the lockout ended, the groups will play home-and-home sequence Sept. 30-Oct. 2 at Wrigley and Oct. 3-5 in Cincinnati.
If they’re something like the primary 13 matchups, these will likely be two must-miss sequence.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com