Cub Tracks bares knuckles

Kyle Hendricks depended on his experience and considerable guile to get past the New York Metropolitans on a rainy Wednesday night in Flushing Meadows. The Cubs went into the game in the second spot in the division and in the wild-card race, two and a half games behind the front-running Cardinals, who were kind enough to lose to the Brewers and sport the same record as the wild-card leading Nationals at 73-58 (as of game-time).

Erstwhile God of Thunder Noah Syndergaard (Today’s Mets birthday boy) waited to drop the hammer on the Cubs’ bats. Instead the Cubs’ bats rode the lightning to the tune of a 6-0 lead after the first inning, and the game was afoot. A positive outcome would seem to have been an elementary deduction, but this is the Cubs. The Professor did the best he could, but a three-hour tour wasn’t in the cards. He didn’t last very long.

But it got better. Entertaining game, decided by the bullpens. You know the outcome by now — four in a row! Al’s recap will have the details.

“Maybe the Cubs just had to get rid of those ugly white uniforms.” — Jim Deshaies

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. Italics are often used here as sarcasm font.

• Tyler Kepner (The New York Times* {$}): With their dominance fleeting, the Cubs search for answers. “It’s hard to explain, but we have to find a way to be the best version of ourselves,” said Theo Epstein. Jeff Arnold has more along these lines.
• Jay Jaffe (Fangraphs): The Cubs’ road woes threaten their playoff perch. “... in the Wild Card era, no team has ever won less than 40% of its games away from home and still reached the playoffs.”
• Patrick Mooney (The Athletic {$}): Whatever happened to The Cubs Way? Time to play it out. “These are all big games the rest of the way,” Epstein said.
• Marc Carig (The Athletic {$}): Yu Darvish gets back to being an ace and the timing couldn’t be better for the Cubs. “I was so sad about the walk,” Darvish said later. Matt Snyder congrees. Brendan Miller has more Yu for you. Craig Kimbrel, what have you wrought?
• Mark Gonzales (Chicago Tribune* {$}): While Willson Contreras gets closer to returning to the Cubs, Victor Caratini gets more assertive, especially when catching Darvish: ‘We know what the other is thinking’. “I shake him off a lot, but we’re still on the same page,” Darvish added.
• Tony Andracki (NBC Sports Chicago*): Hendricks is figuring out a way to win the battle against himself. “It’s been huge for me just not being a two-pitch guy,” Hendricks said.
• Mark Gonzales (Chicago Tribune* {$}): Anthony Rizzo is resigned to missing the Cubs’ series finale vs. the Mets because of back stiffness. “... it’s a matter of once I can manage the pain, I can play through it and it will gradually go away.”
• Paul Sullivan (Chicago Tribune {$}): Addison Russell’s Triple-A stint is starting to pay dividends. “Yeah, definitely going to Triple-A helped out a lot,” said Russell.
• Michael Cerami (Bleacher Nation): Report says Cubs are looking to extend Javier Baez this winter. Jeff Passan made the report. “... the framework is there, the need is there, and the talent is there.” Paul Sullivan sings Javy’s praises.
• Evan Altman (Cubs Insider): Umpire Ángel Hernández ordered to undergo psych evaluation as part of racial discrimination suit against MLB. “If the judge wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible, maybe he should have just ordered an eye exam.”
• Cubs birthdays: Ensign Cottrell, Dave Cole, Henry Blanco, Anthony Recker, Logan Watkins.

Food for thought:

Thanks for reading.