Cub Tracks’ the team from 20,000 fathoms

Son of a beach. If it’s Saturday, this must be Berwyn. Not Belgium, not Winnetka, where the venerable Ray B. was born and grew up, but Berwyn, where the imaginary signal for SvenVision beams from. In the story, the beast was lonely and the foghorn was the voice of his lover. In the movie, it’s the call of mindless violence and the prototypical nuclear horror story.

Something was clearly lost in the translation. Hooray for Hollywood.

Our Cubs have certainly looked out of their depth the last couple of days against the best-described-as-average Mets. The gods of baseball don’t like them or us fans to be overconfident and that translates into periods of surprising noncompetence where single runs are hard to come by and the ledges start getting crowded. Q got boobirds. That surely wasn’t necessary... but as inevitable as a kaiju cliffhanger and eventual return.

The Cubs can win today and split the series and that ain’t all bad. Let’s talk about it — 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). {$} means paywall. {$] means limited views.

“We had a terrible game. There’s no question we had a bad game. We have to do better than that. We are better than that. I cannot defend some of the plays. We’re better than that.” — Joe Maddon

• Gordon Wittenmyer (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): Cubs Extra: The cost of chasing championships often reaches lofty prospect heights. “It would have been interesting to see how it would have turned out the other way, trying to preserve all of our prospect depth along the way,” Team President Theo Epstein said just ahead of the Sox series.
• Tony Andracki (NBC Sports Chicago*): Cubs turning the page after brutal loss: ‘We played terrible’. “I feel really bad, but I never quit, so I’m gonna continue to do my job and get results,” said Jose Quintana.
• Sahadev Sharma (The Athletic {$}): With a ‘proliferation of arms right now,’ how will the Cubs’ pitching staff evolve in the coming weeks? “You want your starters at some point to get a refresher, get a little bit more time between starts,” general manager Jed Hoyer said.
• Jordan Bastian (MLB.com*): Quintana hears boos after rough start vs. Mets. “The frustration from the fans was not only due to the rough outing from the Cubs lefty, but it stemmed from the prolonged stretch of inconsistency for the ballclub.”
• Tom Musick (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): Cubs notebook: Rookie Adbert Alzolay earns first career start Tuesday against Braves. “He came through the first one very well,” Joe Maddon said. “We know he’s stretched out. We know he can do it.” Teddy Greenstein has more Adbertizing. Brett Taylor talks about the six-man rotation. Evan Altman fills it out.
• Evan Altman (Cubs Insider): Mike Montgomery pitching to alarming reverse splits as sinker fails him. “So far in 2019, however, Monty has been beyond terrible against lefties.”
• Tony Andracki (NBC Sports Chicago*): When will Craig Kimbrel join Cubs bullpen? “If all goes according to plan... sometime in the next week.”
• Jordan Bastian (MLB.com*): Willson Contreras aims for back-to-back ASG starts. “If he’s able to garner that kind of an honor, that’s pretty impressive,” Maddon said.
• Jordan Bastian (MLB.com*): Victor Caratini pitches, makes amazing jump throw. “... it was the final out that had the fans at Wrigley on their feet.”
• Jimmy Im (CNBC): This hotel lets you throw the ceremonial first pitch at a Cubs game—for $40,000. Hotel Zachary offers the package deal.
• Cubs birthdays: Jack Hardy. Also notable: Jim Deshaies.

Food for thought:

Thanks for reading.