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The Brewers are up ¹⁄₂ game.

I can’t do this thing until the national writers and the beats get the quote machine flowing. So I’m often a victim of circumstances, a stooge of the confederacy of dunces that masquerade as the gods of baseball, a prisoner of the white lines on the infield...

Idle hands are the devil’s workshop, it’s said. Therefore it behooved me to find something to do during rain delay theater. Naturally my thoughts turned to Berwyn, given the time, and Sven obliged my not-very-dormant Creature Features jones with a viewing of the original Wolf Man. Maria Ouspenskaya reminds me of my maternal granny, who vas Hungarian and made the best pastries. So I watched — the game didn’t restart until Larry was dead. Great timing.

Yeah. I tuned in just in time to see Cardinals runs scoring. Well, I wanted a horror show. It was either that or stare numbly at the Cubs’ RISP figures. Ouch!

And then the Cubs came to bat and the plot started getting complicated. Al will recap it all for you. The ending maybe needed a little work. Len and AJ sounded pretty good. Both of them know how and when to chat, and keep it to a minimum, and that was refreshing.

The second-place Cubs will have to pull one out today. Here’s today’s Cubs News and Notes. As always, * means autoplay on, or annoying ads, or both (directions to remove for Firefox and Chrome).

Javy Baez pulled himself from the lineup as a nagging heel injury will prevent him from starting on Saturday. When he returns, Joe Maddon said they may have to play him at third base for a bit in order to keep him from moving around so much while also avoiding second base. Maddon thinks Baez may have re-injured himself hitting the bag on a double play . There was no mention of a possible IL stint: “If he’s going to say something, it’s bothering him decently right now,” Maddon said.

• Brendan Miller (Cubs Insider): Yu Darvish showcases insane 93-mph splitter against Cardinals. “His pitches were so nasty that Statcast’s classification system couldn’t even accurately identify them.”
• Mark Gonzales (Chicago Tribune* {$}): Pedro Strop is on track to return during the next homestand. Could free agent Craig Kimbrel join him in the Cubs bullpen? “We’re being true to him and biology as to how long it’s supposed to take for him to come back from that injury,” Maddon said of Strop’s injury.
• Tim Stebbins (NBC Sports Chicago*): Many factors for Cubs to think about in potential pursuit of free agent closer Craig Kimbrel. “... but there are both pros and cons to signing the elite 31-year-old closer.”
• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation): Sometimes you get punished for throwing a pitch too well – and it’s time for that to change. “I think we all need to be clear that what was taken from the Cubs was not necessarily a win – but a full and fair opportunity to try to win.”
• Jordan Bastian (MLB.com*): Javier Baez asks out of lineup to rest ailing heel. “For him to say something,” Maddon said, “it had to be pretty sore.”
• Gordon Wittenmyer (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): Top niche? After 2017 misstep, Kyle Schwarber might (finally) be Cubs’ leadoff answer to Dexter Fowler. Maybe.
• Paul Sullivan (Chicago Tribune* {$}): Brandon Hyde is changing the culture of the Orioles, but the former Cubs coach is no clone of Maddon. “... not all rebuilds are alike, and Hyde may not have realized how difficult a task it would be.”
• Gordon Wittenmyer (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): Bill Buckner’s influence lives on through Cubs he coached in their first professional seasons. He “... was the short-season-A hitting coach for the Boise Hawks in 2012-13.”
• Cubs birthdays: Larry Jackson, Lee Gregory, Neifi Perez, Steve Rain.

Food for thought:

Thanks for reading.