Cub Tracks Friday night-lights

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The Cubs followed up Thursday’s effort with this, by the second batter of the contest:

But Jake only took his no-hitter into the second. He threw a lot of pitches. It took a while.

Keegan Thompson came in to relieve in the 6th, after a scary HBP:

Most of you Midwesterners and Easterners were probably asleep by game’s end. There was a neat little discussion of the sticky stuff situation with Sutcliffe and JD, but the rest wasn’t so pretty, and the game crawled like an eye.

Al will have the details in his recap.

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 on this page as sarcasm font. (In the comments section, use @ before and after your remarks @ to produce sarcasm font. In the text body. It doesn’t work in the headlines.)

• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation*): Why a Max Scherzer trade – to the Cubs or any other team – just became overwhelmingly unlikely. Gordon Wittenmyer offers extended reasoning.
• Sara Sanchez (Fangraphs*): The Cubs No-Hit the Dodgers. It wasn’t pretty, but it counts. “Baseball is a funny game.”
• Gordon Wittenmyer (NBC Sports Chicago*): Cubs’ Justin Steele could be option for Jake Arrieta struggles. “All Ross would say is that the plan is for Steele to be stretched out to “more than one inning.”
• Chet Gutwein (Fangraphs*): Resurgent Brothers a key contributor in Cubs’ bullpen. “Most NRIs don’t pan out and are either released or end up in the minor leagues, but occasionally they suit up for Opening Day.”
• Tim Stebbins (NBC Sports Chicago* {$}): Cubs’ Trevor Williams, Justin Steele to begin rehab assignments. “There’s no firm timeline for the pitchers’ returns...”
• Tommy Birch (Des Moines Register* {$}): Month after gruesome broken ankle, former Chicago Cubs pitcher Jason Adam eyes fast return. “Thankfully, only a small part of his foot was fractured.”
• Mike McGraw (Daily Herald* {$}): Cubs’ Wisdom has the numbers to be HR contest candidate. “Wisdom has hit a home run every 7.4 at-bats since joining the Cubs.”
• Meghan Montemurro (Chicago Tribune* {$}): Meet Joe Johnson, the Chicago Cubs fan behind Obvious Shirts, a T-shirt company built on one-liners, a love of baseball and a little luck: ‘It worked. I can’t believe it.’ “To this day I’m still a company of one, and people don’t know that,” Johnson said.
• Patrick Mooney (The Athletic {$}): What really happened with the Cubs’ minor-league housing situation in Myrtle Beach? “...multiple sources familiar with the situation described the tensions...”
• The Onion*: Chicago Cubs launch charitable initiative to give back to overserved communities. “...it feels good to show these incredibly trashed fans what they are actually capable of.”

Food for Thought: Weekend Edition.

Thanks for reading!