Cub Tracks Prepares For A Frenzy

With Game 3 only hours away, here's the latest from around the web.

From Comcast SportsNet Chicago:

• The Cubs have split the first two games against the Cardinals despite Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant performing, something that Patrick Mooney says will need to change.
• Jake Arrieta is confident in his ability to get the Cubs a win in Game 3 of the Division Series, but he also knows that Michael Wacha has the ability to be "pretty darned good on the mound himself."
• How will the Cardinals try to beat Arrieta? For Mike Matheny, the first step is to keep the same gameplan that they would if it were anyone else.
• The Game 4 starter doesn't appear as if it will be Jon Lester on short rest. As Joe Maddon puts it: "We have not even uttered that to this point."
• Everybody loves Manny, and especially Jorge Soler, who credited a significant portion of his turnaround to work he has done with Manny Ramirez.
• Hector Rondon got his first playoff save on Saturday night. His bigger challenge in Game 2 might have been just getting out of the bullpen bathroom.

From Cubs.com:

• Even though it's Jake Arrieta on the mound for Game 3, no one on the Cubs is taking anything for granted.
• One thing is for sure about Game 3: There will be a crazy atmosphere at Wrigley Field.
• Anthony Castrovince writes that Arrieta is in the midst of a period of superior pitching that the game of baseball has ever seen.
• If it's not Jon Lester for Game 4, who's going to get the start? Joe Maddon hasn't yet announced the official starter, saying that "I haven't spoken to the person yet, so I don't want to say it in advance of talking to the player."
  
• Here's a transcript of Maddon's press conference at Sunday's workout day at Wrigley Field.
• And here's a transcript of Arrieta's press conference on Sunday.
• Maddon isn't the kind of manager that has a lot of team meetings, but he still knows how to send a message to his players.
• Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo may not have a hit yet in the postseason, but they both like what they see: a team effort to win games.
• The Cubs' rookies have been amassing historic numbers this season, posting the fourth-highest WAR from rookies of any team in the past 100 years.
• Over the history of both franchises, there have been 309 players that have played for both the Cubs and the Cardinals.  Mark Sheldon looks back at some of the most notable players to wear both uniforms in their careers.
• Phil Rogers writes that the trade of Arrieta and Pedro Strop for Scott Feldman and Steve Clevenger just might have a chance at becoming the exact opposite of the Lou Brock for Ernie Broglio trade.

From ESPN Chicago:

• Jayson Stark sees something very familiar about Game 3 for the Cardinals against Jake Arrieta -- namely the Cardinals' postseason matchups last year against Clayton Kershaw.
• Stark also writes about the power of the bunt in Game 2 and something that has not been done in the past 111 years of postseason play: laying down two squeeze bunts in the same game, let alone the same inning.
• Kris Bryant isn't worried about his hitless streak in the postseason: "It's just the cycles of the games."
• Jesse Rogers presents three observations from Games 1 and 2 at Busch Stadium.
• Joe Maddon doesn't see a need for a rule change in the wake of the Chase Utley slide that took out Ruben Tejada, saying that "The rule's already in place... Let's utilize the rules that are in play right now, but don't overreact."

From CBS Chicago:

• Chris Emma writes that the Cubs continue to look like something special as they now face a best-of-three series against the Cardinals, with two of those games at Wrigley Field and one with Jake Arrieta on the mound.
• Win or lose, Bruce Levine writes that Cub fans should not fear because they have a winner for a leader in Joe Maddon.
• What was Maddon's inspiration for trying two consecutive bunts in Game 2? Maddon gives credit to Don Zimmer for the unexpected tactic, saying that "This is all Don Zimmer stuff."

From the Chicago Tribune:

• Paul Sullivan writes that Wrigley Field is ready for its upcoming once-in-a-century matchup against the Cardinals on Monday night, a matchup that will feature a much different atmosphere than that of the first two games in St. Louis.
• Steve Rosenbloom gives his analysis of the Game 2 victory including the Cubs' ability to use the "Cardinal Way" to put five runs up in the second inning.
• I tried to figure out a line to write about Bernie Lincicome's latest article, but I couldn't. So here it is.
• For Theo Epstein, player development is not just about looking at the numbers; it's also about looking at the human element.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

• Anthony Rizzo has a challenge for Cubs fans: To make Wrigley Field even louder than PNC Park was for the Wild Card game last week.
• Rick Morrissey believes that the wild atmosphere at Wrigley Field won't be too much to handle for this year's team, something that he believes wasn't the case for Cubs teams from the past.
• Rick Telander doesn't see Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant's current hitless streak in the postseason as a bad thing, primarily because he knows that they're eventually going to start hitting.
• What better way to spend a Sunday morning workout day at Wrigley Field than with a Sunday brunch and the Bears game on the video board.
• Chase Utley was suspended for two games for his slide on Ruben Tejada... which led Pirates fans to go absolutely berserk on Twitter.
• Not only was there the Twitter rampage, but Chris Coghlan also revealed that he had received several death threats from South Korean fans after his slide that broke the leg of Jung Ho Kang.

From the Daily Herald:

• Looking to go to the game on Monday? You might be able to find a ticket for as low as $275 according to the ticket brokers.
• The local bars are also expecting a frenzy on Monday, with one bar going as far as changing its name to The Pink Flamingo in honor of Joe Maddon's love for the bird.
• One interesting nugget in this story from Bruce Miles: The Cubs designated Tsuyoshi Wada for assignment and selected the contract of Taylor Teagarden from Triple-A Iowa.
• One of the side-effects to the Cubs' postseason run: The impact that it's having on local weddings.

Today's food for thought:

• There's a satellite that has been measuring the Earth's shape for the past 39 years... and it looks like a giant disco ball.
• [VIDEO] And what do you get when you mix a water droplet, food coloring, an antacid tablet... and zero gravity?  Something like this.