I have had ‘Amber’ – the 311 song – stuck in my head for a full three days now. I like the song and all that, but why that song specifically? And why for three days and counting? My family has yelled at me more than once to stop humming/whistling/etc., and I don’t even realize I’m doing it.
I guess amber really is the color of my energy … god I’m so sorry for that …
In a game like that, you can call out so many performances as being noteworthy – and you better believe I’ll be discussing Miguel Amaya and Pete Crow-Armstrong AGAIN later today – but I want to highlight Isaac Paredes, who homered, singled, and walked in six plate appearances (no strikeouts). It’s no secret that he’s been kind of a mess since coming over at the Trade Deadline, and while a turnaround in his performance is probably not going to be timely enough to save the Cubs’ 2024 season, he is EXTREMELY important to their 2025 hopes. So getting him stabilized now, feeling good heading into the offseason, and entering Spring Training not feeling like he desperately has to prove his worth, would probably have a lot of value.
The whole game was quite an exercise in big numbers. The 18 runs were the Cubs’ most this season. Ditto the 21 hits. You already know about the eight stolen bases. And a couple more :
“The last time any Major League team had 21 hits and eight stolen bases was June 28, 1912, when the New York Giants did so against the Boston Braves in a 12-3 win, per STATS.
The Cubs’ 21 hits and 18 runs were both season highs. The last time the Cubs had 18 runs and 21 hits came in the same game: a 20-9 victory over the Reds on Aug. 1, 2023, when they also had 21 hits. It was the third time since 2022 they had reached both marks in a single game, though they didn’t accomplish the feat in any contest between 1996-2021.”
I’m sure that was a fun one for Craig Counsell to discuss (not that he necessarily shows much when he’s feeling fun, but I’m sure it was in there):
Now the Cubs just need to keep the offense going tonight and tomorrow morning (yes, tomorrow’s game starts in the morning in Central Time!).
Speaking of which. There is “facing the Pirates” and there is “facing the Pirates when two of the games are started by Paul Skenes and Jared Jones.” The Cubs always get the latter this year. So they’ve got Jones tonight and Skenes tomorrow. They’ve actually had some nice games against the two young stud hurlers, but it’s still not the same as facing the typical starting pitcher on the typical 62-69 team. You’ve probably gotten sick of hearing me say THE CUBS NEED SWEEPS over the past couple weeks, but it remains true. Even with Jones and Skenes on the mound. Unfortunately.
(Cynical, dark side take: if Skenes dominates the Cubs, it’ll help his Rookie of the Year case, and if he finishes first or second, he gets a full year of service time (even though the Pirates held him back so that he wouldn’t get a full year). Moreover, because they didn’t have him up at the start of the year, the Pirates couldn’t even get a Prospect Promotion Incentive draft pick for him. So it would really screw the Pirates – in a way they arguably deserve – if Skenes finished first or second in the Rookie of the Year voting this year.)
We probably won’t see it in this series – he’ll DH while he gets side work – but on Oneil Cruz at shortstop and moving him to center field. This was always expected to be the eventual path given Cruz’s enormous size – it was kind of incredible he stayed moderately playable at shortstop for as long as he did. There’s a loss in player value with this move, but if Cruz, 25, was going to wind up getting worse at shortstop and could instead become pretty decent in center, then the long-term benefit could be meaningful. Judging by the metrics, Cruz was “pretty bad, but not unplayable” at shortstop this year. I expect the Pirates probably believe he has a chance to be average or better in center field if they get to work on it soon enough.
Two random notes that popped out at me as I was looking at for the earlier stolen base post: (1) Miguel Amaya remains among the bottom ten catchers in helping out with the running game, and (2) Corbin Burnes isn’t just dead last in just about every metric on the pitching side, he’s dead last by a wide margin. I legit do not have a “point” in noting these things – they just happened to jump out at me as I was reviewing the data. But if there weren’t improvements from Amaya (I think there can be), and if the Cubs actually did go out and get Burnes (I think they will not), they could be in for some WILD games when that duo is paired up.
Speaking of PCA steals, this made me chuckle, and it was actually from BEFORE last night’s game:
OK, so remember that crazy challenge play this weekend, where the Cubs got an out because the batter didn’t touch first base before heading to the dugout when pulled for a pinch runner? Not only was that wild, but check out the scoring change:
That means Jesus Sanchez went 0 for 1 in that plate appearance with an intentional walk. That isn’t even … how do you … I love it. I just love that. Can’t be a lot intentional walks in baseball history that went down as an 0 for 1. I’m sure there have been some, but probably not too many!
Speaking of completely bizarre, one-off things, the Danny Jansen swap-a-roo finally happened:
That one was even wilder than it seems, because it wasn’t just that Jansen played for both teams, it’s that he was the dude at bat when the game was suspended – so he went from batting, and then mid-at-bat, changed uniforms, put on the catcher gear, and got behind the plate!
