Cub Tracks goes all in

CUBS Lose.

Last time, we shuffled off to Chicago for two, and Cub Tracks upped the ante following a Cubs victory. Tonight, after some underhanded-seeming shenanigans and too much Stephen Strasburg, the Cubs caravan travels to Washington, DC, where the next game will be played.

Ian Happ was gonna catch that if it stayed in. Man, is my heart heavy. But I believe in our guys like Carl Edwards, Jr, believes. Let’s get it done, that’s all I have to say. The scribes may have more. Read all about it! As always * means autoplay on™ (directions to remove for Firefox and Chrome).

Today in baseball history:

• 1907 - At Detroit's Bennett Park, right-hander Mordecai 'Three Finger' Brown throws a 2-0 shutout, beating the Tigers to capture the World Championship for the Cubs. Although Game 1 ended in a 3-3, 12-inning tie, Chicago became the first club to sweep a Fall Classic when the team won the next four games.

• 1929 - The A's, trailing 8-0 during Game 4 of the World Series, erupt for 10 runs in the seventh inning off three Cub pitchers en route to a 10-8 victory. Chicago's Hack Wilson becomes one of the goats of the game when he loses two balls in the sun in center field.
• 1949 - Vin Scully, working his first broadcast ever, does the play-by play when Maryland defeats the Boston University at Fenway Park, 14-13. The football assignment marks the start the of a 67-year career in the broadcast booth for the Hall-of-Fame baseball announcer, who will be remembered as the iconic voice of the Dodgers.
• 1965 - Larry Bowa, who was cut from the baseball team during his first three years in high school, is signed by Philadelphia as an amateur free agent.
• 1967 - Lou Brock becomes the third player in major league history to accomplish a trio of thefts in a World Series contest. The three stolen bases during the Cardinals' 7-2 victory over Boston in Game 7 gives the speedy St. Louis left fielder a total of seven for the series, establishing a new Fall Classic mark.
• 1986 - On a rainy, miserable night, Norm Cash, wearing cowboy boots, slips off a wet dock on Beaver Island and drowns in Lake Michigan, while returning to his 33-foot cabin cruiser, aptly named "Stormin' Norman".
• 2003 - Thirty-five years after creating a controversy with his rendition of the song, Jose Feliciano sings the Star-Spangled Banner at the Marlins' NLCS game against the Cubs at Pro Player Stadium. The singer's nontraditional gospelized version of the national anthem sung before the start of Game 5 of the 1968 World Series at Tiger Stadium caused such a flap that some radio stations stopped playing his records on the air.
• 2003 - With his team having lost three consecutive playoff games and on the brink of elimination in the NLCS, Marlins starter Josh Beckett sends the series back to Chicago when he strikes out 11 Chicago batters and gives up just two hits en route to tossing a 4-0 shutout at Pro Player Stadium.

• 2009 - The Cubs file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Wilmington, Delaware. The anticipated short-term move will allow the club's owner, the Tribune Company, to sell the team in an $845 million deal to the family of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.'s founder, Joe Ricketts.
• 2015 - The Cubs homer six times en route to an 8-6 victory over the Cardinals at Wrigley Field in the Game 3 of the NLDS. Chicago's sextet of round-trippers, that included long balls from Kris Bryant, Starlin Castro, Dexter Fowler, Anthony Rizzo, Kyle Schwarber, and Jorge Soler, marks first time in postseason history that one team has recorded that many home runs in one game.
• Happy birthday, Glenn Beckert.

Cubs news and notes:

• MLB.com: NLDS Game 4: Maddon postgame interview. Transcribed and [video].

• Bruce Levine (CBS Chicago): Cubs’ attitude toward win-or-go-home Game 5? ‘Been Here Before’. “Both sides, if those guys are honest, thought this would be a good series,” Jon Lester said.
• Carrie Muskat, Jamal Collier (MLB.com): Cubs face winner-take-all after G4 loss to Nats. “The Nationals forced the series back to Washington for a decisive Game 5...”
• Vinnie Duber (NBC Sports Chicago*): Joe Maddon went into 'must-win' mode in Game 4, so how will he line up his pitchers for Game 5? “You've got obviously starting, Kyle, and then Jose Quintana will play the role of Jon Lester tomorrow if it's necessary,” Maddon said.
• Matt Snyder (CBS Sports*): The Cubs have eighth-inning woes and they have bled over into the postseason. “The Cubs had a 5.06 ERA in the 8th this season, and both playoff losses have had 8th inning disasters.”

• Adam Berry (MLB.com): Cubs confident with battle-tested Kyle Hendricks. "We have all the confidence in that guy," shortstop Addison Russell said.
• Steve Greenberg (Chicago Sun-Times*): Jake Arrieta counting on team to win Game 5, extend his time with Cubs. “Hopefully we come out ready — as I know we will — and I get another shot,” he said.
• Tony Andracki (NBC Sports Chicago*): Swing and a mist: Anthony Rizzo perfectly describes what it's like to hit against Stephen Strasburg. "He throws that fastball and it rises and then that changeup just falls off the planet. It's basically anybody who goes to a batting cage and doesn't know how to hit, that's what it feels like."
• Randy Holt (Wrigleyville-Baseball Prospectus): Playoff Rizzo is the best kind of Rizzo. “The Chicago Cubs are obviously not a team short on talent, but Anthony Rizzo is an entity all his own.”
• Jeff Sullivan (Fangraphs): The playoff strike zone’s always a little bit bigger. “The obvious pitches are almost always called in the obvious ways. At issue are the borders.” Also see: The worst called ball of the playoffs.

Food for thought:

• Ankita Rao (Motherboard): American speed limits are based on 1950s science. "The way it works now, there are higher-than-expected crash rates along the system," said John Lower, a transportation engineer in California.
• Adam Mann (Science): Astronomers say they’ve found many of the universe’s missing atoms. “The finding helps solidify our understanding of how the universe has evolved over time.”
• Katherina Kropshofer (The Guardian): Scientists discover ring around dwarf planet Haumea beyond Neptune. “Rugby ball-shaped dwarf planet with two moons also has a ring around it and orbits in the outer solar system.”

Thanks for reading. Sunday is the next scheduled stop.