Bleed Cubbie Blue - Cubs vs. Padres Wednesday game threadsA Chicago Cubs Fan Community Since February 9, 2005https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/47557/cubbieblue.png2017-06-21T17:50:01-05:00http://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/rss/stream/155914052017-06-21T17:50:01-05:002017-06-21T17:50:01-05:00Padres 3, Cubs 2: If you find the Cubs’ bats, please call
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<figcaption>That’s about how good the Cubs’ offense was Wednesday afternoon | Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>... because they appear to be missing in action.</p> <p id="D2w5Yy">If you can locate the <a href="https://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/">Cubs</a>’ offense, please call... well, Joe Maddon or Theo Epstein or Tom Ricketts or someone in management, because after <a href="http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/boxscore.jsp?gid=2017_06_21_sdnmlb_chnmlb_1">the Cubs’ pathetic 3-2 loss to the Padres</a> Wednesday afternoon, I’m sure they all must be quite worried, as it’s definitely gone missing.</p>
<p id="sdTDF7">Two hits. Just four baserunners. The last 16 Cubs hitters retired in order. You’d have thought the Cubs were playing the <a href="https://www.purplerow.com/">Rockies</a> or <a href="https://www.truebluela.com/">Dodgers</a> or an actual good team.</p>
<p id="Qbd3AE">Because the San Diego Padres are not a good team. <span>Miguel Diaz</span>, their starting pitcher, is a Rule 5 pick who hadn’t pitched above A ball before this year, and who had a 7.36 ERA coming into the game.</p>
<p id="4EUbQO">The tone might have been set by <span>Anthony Rizzo</span>, who has been on an amazing hot streak since he started leading off games. He got loud ovations every time he came to bat, and Diaz went 3-0 on him to lead off the first. You’d think Rizzo, a patient hitter, might have waited for a walk, but he offered at 3-0 and hit a lazy fly to right. Rizzo went 0-for-4, ending his streak of leading off games reaching base at seven and his overall hitting streak at 14.</p>
<p id="yYfXGM">After Rizzo’s fly out, <span>Kris Bryant</span> doubled, but that’s the only hit Diaz allowed. Bryant advanced to third on a fly to right and was stranded.</p>
<p id="ViQD8d">Two innings later, Diaz walked <span>Albert Almora Jr.</span> with one out. That brought out what seemed like the entire Padres coaching and training staff to look at him. After a few moments Diaz left the game. I was thinking this but wouldn’t have posted it, except the Padres’ <a href="http://MLB.com">MLB.com</a> beat writer was apparently thinking the same thing:</p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Speculating, but Diaz, a Rule 5er, needs to be active at least 90 days to remain with the Padres, in case of a DL stint.</p>— AJ Cassavell (@AJCassavell) <a href="https://twitter.com/AJCassavell/status/877608148907032577">June 21, 2017</a>
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<p id="e3x5RU">Obviously, the Padres think Diaz has talent but they don’t want to have to keep him on their big-league roster all year. So they might be playing fast and loose with the rules so they can keep him. The Rule 5 rules probably need to be looked at. Here’s what Diaz has:</p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">It's a right forearm strain for Diaz, say the Padres.</p>— AJ Cassavell (@AJCassavell) <a href="https://twitter.com/AJCassavell/status/877610662393819136">June 21, 2017</a>
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<p id="vZWTjU">Pretty generic, probably keeps him out long enough so he can be optioned once he’s “healthy.”</p>
<p id="grU2Vq">Why am I talking about this? Because there’s hardly any Cubs things to talk about. <span>Craig Stammen</span> replaced Diaz and one inning later, he walked <span>Kyle Schwarber</span> with one out. <span>Addison Russell</span> popped up, and <a href="https://mediadownloads.mlb.com/mlbam/mp4/2017/06/21/1522658483/1498074719519/asset_1800K.mp4">then up came Ian Happ [VIDEO]</a>.</p>
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<p id="vntY8s">Happ’s two-run homer gave the Cubs a 2-0 lead. That ball: <em>Crushed!</em></p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Ian Happ crushed that HR... 112 MPH <a href="https://t.co/pWvHejJWnj">pic.twitter.com/pWvHejJWnj</a></p>— Daren Willman (@darenw) <a href="https://twitter.com/darenw/status/877613592765497345">June 21, 2017</a>
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<p id="yfhGoI">So that’s good, right?</p>
<p id="zanKn7">Not so much. As has been the case so many times this year, the Cubs started coughing runs back within about five minutes. <span>Eddie Butler</span> served up a double to Stammen. That’s exactly the third extra-base hit by a relief pitcher this year, and it probably shouldn’t have even been a hit. Kris Bryant turned the wrong way on the ball, playing somewhat shallow on Stammen. This was just the fourth game Bryant had played in right field this year and... well, I don’t know, maybe his outfielding instincts were rusty. But this turned out to be a key play in the game.</p>
<p id="PPTEoZ">Butler had struggled through the first four innings even though he didn’t allow any runs, and then when <span>Jose Pirela</span> singled in Stammen, Joe had seen enough.</p>
<p id="0yZndI"><span>Justin Grimm</span>, who has been really good since his recall to the big leagues, was summoned, even though he had thrown the ninth inning on Tuesday. Pirela had taken second on the throw in from the outfield, so it was a fairly high-leverage situation, tying run in scoring position, nobody out.</p>
<p id="l1ELFW">Grimm struck out a pair sandwiched around a popup to get out of the inning. I can see Maddon giving him many more high-leverage situations going forward.</p>
<p id="jORy5s"><span>Brian Duensing</span> was next, and with one out <span>Erick Aybar</span> homered to tie the game.</p>
<p id="eIMoFO">Okay, it’s still tied. And the Cubs are still going down 1-2-3 in every inning.</p>
<p id="9KM3DO"><span>Pedro Strop</span> had a 1-2-3 eighth and then <span>Koji Uehara</span> had a bad inning. <span>Wil Myers</span> singled on Koji’s first pitch. One out later, <span>Cory Spangenberg</span> singled and went to second on the throw in.</p>
<p id="a3O88X">Aybar was next. Uehara went to 2-0 before Aybar was sent to first. Call that a “Half Manfred,” if you will. </p>
<p id="HUCt9d">Former Cub Matt Szczur — who was greeted warmly in all three games, a nice gesture — was next. You can imagine he would have liked to pay back his ex-employers, but Uehara got him to pop out in foul territory.</p>
<p id="tqlOTq">Up stepped Padres backup catcher <span>Luis Torrens</span>, playing only because of the collision between Rizzo and <span>Austin Hedges</span> on Monday. Before this game he had walked four times in 65 major-league plate appearances.</p>
<p id="BcQc3m">Naturally, Uehara walked him, and there was the lead and eventual winning run.</p>
<p id="fSPuLt">Frustrating doesn’t begin to describe this. The Cubs wound up 2-4 for the season against a bad Padres team they should have been at least 4-2 against, maybe even 5-1. Two hits? Third time this year the Cubs have been held to two hits, and they won one of those games (<a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT201704250.shtml">April 25 in Pittsburgh</a>). That matches the total of games in which the Cubs were held to two hits or fewer from 2016 — <em>all of 2016</em>. We’re not even halfway through 2017.</p>
<p id="bn1UEH">The Cubs thus leave for their longest road trip of 2017 (11 games) one game over .500 and, pending the result of the <a href="https://www.bucsdugout.com/">Pirates</a>/<a href="https://www.brewcrewball.com/">Brewers</a> game Wednesday evening, one game out of first place. The N.L. Central is still winnable. This team has the talent to do it. I keep waiting for them to break out in a long winning streak. It won’t be easy to do it on the road, but I still believe they can and will.</p>
<p id="zleBHW">The announced crowd of 41,708 was the Cubs’ second-biggest of 2017. They didn’t have much to cheer about on a day that was sunny most of the time before an odd little sprinkle started to fall in the seventh inning. Hopefully, when the Cubs return to Wrigley Field July 4, they’ll be in first place with the other teams in the division well in the rear-view mirror.</p>
<p id="HXSrBs">The road trip begins Thursday evening in Miami. Jake Arrieta goes for the Cubs against the <a href="https://www.fishstripes.com/">Marlins</a>’ <span>Jeff Locke</span>.</p>
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https://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2017/6/21/15850150/cubs-padres-recap-ian-happ-anthony-rizzo-mlb-scoresAl Yellon2017-06-21T16:05:02-05:002017-06-21T16:05:02-05:00Overflow thread 3: Cubs vs. Padres, Wednesday 6/21, 1:20 CT
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<figcaption>Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
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<p id="2QUtbf">——</p>
https://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2017/6/21/15808588/overflow-thread-3-cubs-vs-padres-wednesday-6-21-1-20-ctAl Yellon2017-06-21T15:20:01-05:002017-06-21T15:20:01-05:00Overflow thread 2: Cubs vs. Padres, Wednesday 6/21, 1:20 CT
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<figcaption>Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
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<p id="2QUtbf">——</p>
https://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2017/6/21/15808584/overflow-thread-2-cubs-vs-padres-wednesday-6-21-1-20-ctAl Yellon2017-06-21T14:20:02-05:002017-06-21T14:20:02-05:00Overflow thread 1: Cubs vs. Padres, Wednesday 6/21, 1:20 CT
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<figcaption>Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p id="2QUtbf">——</p>
https://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2017/6/21/15808580/overflow-thread-1-cubs-vs-padres-wednesday-6-21-1-20-ctAl Yellon2017-06-21T11:30:02-05:002017-06-21T11:30:02-05:00Chicago Cubs vs. San Diego Padres preview, Wednesday 6/21, 1:20 CT
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<figcaption>Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>The Cubs go for their first series sweep since early June.</p> <p>The Cubs last swept a series June 2-3-4 against the Cardinals at Wrigley Field.</p>
<p>That was followed by taking the first two of a set against the Marlins; the five-game winning streak was the season's longest to date.</p>
<p>It still is. That five-game winning streak was followed by a four-game losing streak that extended into losing seven of 10.</p>
<p>Now the Cubs have won three in a row and can make it four by taking the final game of the season against the Padres. If they can do that, the teams will have traded sweeps and wind up 3-3 for the year.</p>
<p>Works for me.</p>
<p id="g0AeTP">Here are today’s particulars.</p>
<p id="rI4c27"><a href="https://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/">Cubs</a> lineup:</p>
<blockquote>Rizzo 1B, Bryant RF, Schwarber LF, Russell SS, Happ 2B, La Stella 3B, Contreras C, Butler P, Almora CF</blockquote>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Here is today's <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cubs?src=hash">#Cubs</a> starting lineup!<br><br>Game preview: <a href="https://t.co/7wr9degLQM">https://t.co/7wr9degLQM</a> <a href="https://t.co/44Brv5UTDE">pic.twitter.com/44Brv5UTDE</a></p>
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) <a href="https://twitter.com/Cubs/status/877536379734966273">June 21, 2017</a>
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<p id="eRlGe8"><a href="https://www.gaslampball.com/">Padres</a> lineup:</p>
<blockquote>Pirela 2B, Cordero CF, Myers 1B, Renfroe RF, Spangenberg 3B, Aybar SS, Szczur LF, Torrens C, Diaz P</blockquote>
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<span>Eddie Butler</span> vs. <span>Miguel Diaz</span>
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<cite>Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports</cite>
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<cite>Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports</cite>
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<p>Eddie Butler -- I'd really like to see him succeed. He seems like a good guy and the talent is there.</p>
<p>Eddie Butler -- frustrating. He's had some good games and some bad games. He has yet to complete six innings in any of his starts. He still walks too many guys (18 in 34⅔ innings).</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SDN/SDN201705300.shtml">His start against the Padres</a> in San Diego last month was his worst as a Cub. Hopefully he learned from that and can do better against the same group tonight.</p>
<p>Miguel Diaz made 21 relief appearances for the Padres before being placed in the rotation. He wasn't all that good in relief -- 7.50 ERA, 1.542 WHIP, five home runs in 24 innings. He has pitched a total of 5⅓ innings in his two starts, walking four and allowing a pair of homers.</p>
<p>He's a 22-year-old rookie who the Padres got from the <a href="https://www.brewcrewball.com/" class="sbn-auto-link">Brewers</a> (via the <a href="https://www.twinkietown.com/" class="sbn-auto-link">Twins</a>, who chose him and then traded him to San Diego) in the Rule 5 draft. He had never pitched above A ball before this year. He probably should be in Double-A still learning, but the Padres are rebuilding and I suppose they figured he had talent, so they wanted to stash him on the MLB roster until they can, by rule, send him down.</p>
<p>You might recall the Cubs doing something like this with a pitcher named <span>Lendy Castillo</span> in 2012. 23 years old, Rule 5 draftee, had some talent and some success, but hadn't pitched above A ball. He was awful for the big-league Cubs in 2012, was sent down and never got back to his previous level. He went through four other organizations (<a href="https://www.lonestarball.com/" class="sbn-auto-link">Rangers</a>, <a href="https://www.bluebirdbanter.com/" class="sbn-auto-link">Blue Jays</a>, <a href="https://www.blessyouboys.com/" class="sbn-auto-link">Tigers</a>, <a href="https://www.letsgotribe.com/" class="sbn-auto-link">Indians</a>), was released last year and is out of baseball at age 28.</p>
<p>These kinds of things don't really help the player or the team, in my view. The Cubs will probably hit Diaz hard, and he might never make it. Guys like this should be allowed to develop, not be pounded by big-league hitters.</p>
<p id="VG27uf">Today's game is on WGN. It’s also on MLB Network outside the Chicago and San Diego markets.</p>
<p id="y4SIM1"><a href="http://mlb.mlb.com/mediacenter/index.jsp?ymd=20140401#date=6/21/2017">Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.</a></p>
<p id="Xe5URc"><a href="http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2017_06_21_sdnmlb_chnmlb_1#game=2017_06_21_sdnmlb_chnmlb_1,game_state=Live">MLB.com Gameday</a></p>
<p id="cOzi2Y"><a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/previews/2017/CHN201706210.shtml">Baseball-reference.com game preview</a></p>
<p id="G92wAe"><a href="http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/events/520431/pregame">SB Nation game preview</a></p>
<p id="AScVZw">Please visit our SB Nation <a href="https://www.gaslampball.com/">Padres</a> site <a href="http://www.gaslampball.com/">Gaslamp Ball</a>. If you do go there to interact with Padres fans, please be respectful, abide by their individual site rules and serve as a good representation of Cub fans in general and BCB in particular.</p>
<p id="4R9cxt">The 2017 Game Thread procedure will be the same as the one used during 2016. Here's how it works.</p>
<p id="uNrOo7">You'll find the game preview posted separately on the front page, two hours before game time (90 minutes for some early day games following night games).</p>
<p id="Jy7Er2">At the same time, a StoryStream containing the preview will also post on the front page. The First Pitch Thread and all the overflow threads will be published in that stream, as well as the recap. The recap will also live on the front page as a separate post, and at the time I write the recap I will rename the stream "Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of Week) Game Threads" so you can go back and find every thread related to that particular game.</p>
<p id="F5ehVY">You will also be able to find the preview, First Pitch Thread, all the overflow threads and recap in the box marked "Chicago Cubs Game Threads" at the bottom of the front page (you can also find them in <a href="http://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/chicago-cubs-game-threads">this section link</a>). They will also appear in the game's StoryStream as noted above.</p>
<p id="pjBR1E">The First Pitch thread will post at five minutes before game time, then an overflow thread at one hour, two hours and 2:45 after the scheduled game time.</p>
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<p id="IBjhAX">Discuss amongst yourselves.</p>
https://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2017/6/21/15808492/chicago-cubs-san-diego-padres-preview-wednesdayAl Yellon