I’m going to start here again, there are still only five teams with more wins than the Cubs through July 4. On a pace to win 89 games. Go math. The Cubs played a game and lost. That lowered their overall win pace by an equivalent number. We’re getting to the point in the season where that pace doesn’t move a lot day to day and it takes streaks to move the number one way or the other.
Pete Crow-Armstrong was named an All-Star Saturday night. The Cubs are the fifth best team to date in the NL and they
got a single player. Not that slots are apportioned relative to team strength, you could be a very bad team and have two superstars who make the team. Or a very good team that doesn’t get multiple players.
Ben Brown was the only other Cub who I felt flashed star level performance for any significant length of time. I didn’t think he’d done enough and then he got hurt. So this felt correct. I didn’t look over the rest of the roster or any of the usual noise out there that so and so didn’t belong there and so and so got snubbed. There are more good players than All-Star spots and typically the every team should be represented ruled leads to one or two guys who maybe otherwise wouldn’t be there. The most I’ve ever done is feel a guy was good enough to deserve consideration. I’d always rather they just got the days off. But I recognize it’s cool for the players to get to go at least once or twice in a career.
On the field in Chicago Saturday night, there wasn’t a lot of positive going on. Hat tip to Cubs pitchers, three runs over nine is a fine performance. They ended up using five pitchers to do it. But they didn’t really use many pitchers Friday in the lopsided loss, so not a huge deal. They were able to keep it close in case the offense ever came to life. This is exactly how you want to use your pen to try to steal a game. It just wasn’t to be on this day.
The Cub offense was limited to five singles, four walks and a hit batter. 10 baserunners, no slug. That’s a tough way to mount any offense. To make matters worse, Pete Crow-Armstrong was on four times with a single, two walks and a hit by pitch. That means the whole rest of the team reached base six times over nine innings. This is the same old story, the Cubs are one superstar player and a bunch of average to good players.
I don’t follow other teams with any high level awareness. So I don’t know how this compares to anyone else. The Cubs don’t have much chance against a team that is executing on either or both sides of the plate. On Friday, the Cardinals offense was locked in and on Saturday their pitchers shut the Cub offense down. The Cubs didn’t mount any real resistance either day. Not great. Not a lot of fun. Breathing some life into a Cardinals team that has been reeling a bit over the last few weeks. They certainly needed these games more and they’ve gotten them.
Three Stars:
- Pete Crow-Armstrong. Single, two walks, hit by pitch. He did get caught stealing once.
- Michael Conforto had a pair of singles and a walk. Two players were seven of the 10 runners.
- Caleb Thielbar retired all four batters he faced, striking out one.
Game 89, July 4: Cardinals 3, Cubs 0 (49-40)
Reminder: Heroes and Goats are determined by WPA scores and are in no way subjective.
THREE HEROES:
- Superhero: Pete Crow-Armstrong (.097). 1-1, 2 BB, HBP, CS
- Hero: Michael Conforto (.063). 2-3, BB
- Sidekick: Tyler Ferguson (.038). IP, 5 BF, H, 2 K, HBP
THREE GOATS:
- Billy Goat: Seiya Suzuki (-.158). 0-4
- Goat: Miguel Amaya (-.138). 0-3
- Kid: Dansby Swanson (-.111). 0-3
WPA Notes: Michael Busch (-.108) was just behind Dansby Swanson for the last spot here.
WPA Play of the Game: This whole exercise never feels quite as useless as when the play of the game is the very first play of the game. JJ Wetherholt started the game with a homer and that held up as the top play. (.100)
Cubs Play of the Game: Shōta Imanaga faced Jordan Walker with runners on first and second with no outs in the third, the Cubs down two. He got a double play ball for the first two outs. (.076)
Cubs Player of the Game:
Game 88 Winner: Other was the winner with 46 percent of the vote and the suggestions were Alex Bregman or none of the above. It was definitely that kind of game.
Rizzo Award Standings: (Top 5/Bottom 5)
The award is named for Anthony Rizzo, who finished first in this category three of the first four years it was in existence and four times overall. He also recorded the highest season total ever at +65.5. The point scale is three points for a Superhero down to negative three points for a Billy Goat.
- Pete Crow-Armstrong +21
- Carson Kelly +14.5
- Ben Brown +13.5
- Trent Thornton +12.5
- Michael Busch/Michael Conforto +12
- Edward Cabrera -9.5
- Phil Maton/Dansby Swanson -10
- Seiya Suzuki -12.5
- Caleb Thielbar -13
Up Next: Game three of the weekend series Sunday afternoon. Javier Assad (6-1, 4.53) gets another start. Last time out he was used as a reliever after he’d had three straight starts. The Padres scored four runs against him in 2.2 innings of work, but the Cubs had a good sized lead when he came in. I’m not sure Assad has a ton of experience working in that situation where you have a big lead and you are just trying to finish the string. We all know the old don’t walk anyone and go after hitters, but that’s not really the Javy style.
Lefty Matthew Liberatore (4-5, 5.33) starts for the Cardinals. He’s coming off of a good start, against the Braves of all teams. He allowed just one run in five innings of work. Back on May 31, the Cubs were maybe his best start of the year. He held them scoreless over 5.1 innings, allowing three hits and one walk.
Javy’s whole style reads as “find a way.” He seems to always work into and out of trouble. This whole weekend series with the Cardinals feels like that for the team as a whole. Try to get out of the trouble, limit damage. That hasn’t worked for two days. Maybe, hopefully, the third time will be the charm.
