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Dale Sveum wasn't happy with the way some of the Cubs executed plays, or didn't, in Saturday's loss, writes Neil Hayes in the Sun-Times:
"We didn’t pull off a couple of double plays that were sitting right in our laps right there," Sveum said. "It kind of changed the game around."
The Cubs failed to execute two double plays in the seventh, one because of an errant throw by shortstop Starlin Castro.
And then there was this:
In the bottom of the inning, with Josh Vitters at the plate against left-hander Rex Brothers and two outs, Brett Jackson and Joe Mather attempted what appeared to be a double steal. Mather, though, was nailed at second for the third out.
"It was missed," he said. "The coach tells you not to go anywhere, and you do. It was missed."
Growing pains, I suppose; Sveum has preached aggressiveness on the bases since the beginning of spring training. The runners thought they could pull it off. They were wrong. Considering the games right now aren't much more than glorified spring-training exercises, why not try something like that?
Oh, and "Rex Brothers" is an awesome baseball name. I hope he sticks around long enough to face Rock Shoulders. It'd be like a 1950s heartthrob movie actor matchup.
And today, it might rain. The Cubs have not had a rainout this year after having five last year (and 11 other games delayed). The weather's been much better this summer, if on the hot side, even if the baseball hasn't been.
Cubs lineup:
DeJesus RF, Valbuena 3B, Rizzo 1B, Soriano LF, Castro SS, Clevenger C, Jackson CF, Barney 2B, Volstad P
Rockies lineup was not in at the time I wrote this post. Check the BCB Twitter feed for the Rockies lineup.
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Chris Volstad has made a couple of career starts vs. the Rockies, but not in the last two years -- so his history against the team is largely irrelevant. Players currently on the Colorado active roster are 6-for-20 (.300) against him with one home run (Carlos Gonzalez). That sounds about right for today.
Jhoulys Chacin made two starts vs. the Cubs last year. At Denver in April he threw a six-hit shutout; at Wrigley Field in a June rainout-makeup game he got hit pretty hard. Those are largely irrelevant, too; there are two Cubs players left from that June game who are currently on the Cubs active roster (Starlin Castro, Alfonso Soriano). There is one Cubs player from that game who is on the Rockies active roster (DJ LeMahieu). Current Cubs are 4-for-25 against Chacin. Doomed, we are. Clearly.
Today's game is on WGN.
Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Rockies site Purple Row.
Today's first pitch thread will post at 1:20 p.m. CDT and the overflows at 2:20, 3:20 and 4:05 p.m. CDT. If you need more overflows due to extra innings or rain delays, post them in the fanshot section. Also please note: due to some under-the-hood changes, the sidebar box with the game thread links is no longer available. It seems you've found them with no problems, but if you haven't been able to find the overflow threads, click the "Chicago Cubs Game Threads" link under "Sections" on the left sidebar. They're all in there.
Discuss amongst yourselves.