SIGH OF RELIEF: Chicago Cubs take series from Pirates

SIGH OF RELIEF: Chicago Cubs take series from Pirates

Cubs find a way to win a series against the Pirates. Baby steps and here come the brew crew. You are Locked on Cubs. Your daily Chicago Cubs podcast. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network. Your team every day. You’re Locked On Cubs, part of the Locked On Network. Your team every day. Alongside Samber, I’m Matt Cozy. Sam and I are lifelong fans taking our passion into discussion with you on all things Cubs. Today’s episode is presented by our partner at FanDuel. Football season is around the corner. Visit the FanDuel app today and start planning your futures bets now. Later in the show, we discuss and preview the Cubs fivegame series against the Brewers this week. Uh we also get into the Cubs lack of offense. Owen Casey out of milk carton. And we start with the Cubs taking two of three from the Pirates this weekend. They did lose 3-2 on Friday, but close wins to bring a sigh of relief and perhaps some baby steps. 3-1 Saturday, 4-3 Sunday. The Cubs are still in the top spot in the wild card as of this recording. They’re one game ahead of the Fathers, five games ahead of the Metropolitans, and six games ahead of the Red Lake. Sam, it was a good weekend in the win column. Yeah. So, let’s let’s recap let’s recap these games quickly. Um, let’s start with Friday, which I think Do you think it’s fair to say one of the three worst losses of the year? No. Oh, okay. I think it was awful. Um, the way they lost that game on Friday, especially late with the clutch hitting and Pete oversliding second. I genuinely didn’t think I It looked like he didn’t know the ball was live. I I couldn’t believe that that happened. Um, Saturday, I go to the baseball game. Shout out to our everydayer Jordan uh who I just randomly sat next to and uh had a nice time at the game. Basically was like him and I went with each other. Uh he’s a fantastic listener to the show. Uh just a quick side note, folks, if you ever see me at Wrigley, please do not be afraid to say hello. Like there’s one one person, I won’t name him, that was just staring at me for a while by the marquee and then I said something to him. If there’s ever a day where I’m rude or don’t want to say hello to a listener, I shouldn’t have this job. Okay? So, please don’t feel bad. You’re not bothering me. I’m not that cool. Okay? Um, Saturday, the Cubs found a way to win the ball game three to one. Um, you know, Tucker had a couple 85 hoppers that that got through the first and second base sides. Show was magnificent. uh clutch base hit and then an in indescribable decision by the Pirates skipper to walk half to get to Nico her for that insurance run. Um Cubs win that game and then Sunday I thought was the most encouraging offensive performance in quite some time. Now they still struggled in big spots. Hap took a few called thirds uh with runners on the corners, one out. He uh he made up for it later with a huge hit. Um and then Shaw had a rough at bat with a runner on third less than one out. I thought Hap hit a ball that should have been a home run today. Uh Dansby hit a ball that should have been a home run today. Kelly hit a ball should have been a home run today. I stopped keeping track of that in June as you predicted. I got kind of tired of it. Yes. Um work, but it’s ridiculous. I mean, it’s ridiculous. Uh some of that stuff. I I thought, look, things aren’t great. I’m not going to paint a rosy picture, but outside of the right fielder, I thought that Sunday was a pretty good sign with some baby steps. PCA had a good offensive series. Like I said, big hit for half. And I think Danby Swanson deserves some credit. I really do. He’s hit the ball a lot better than his numbers have shown a lot of this season, including today. Uh um he had the game-winning sacrifice fly and and and a big triple and um you know, I’m pretty hard on Swanson and I want to give him a little bit of credit. I think he’s he’s done a nice job this year overall. Yeah, I’d like to look into Not with runners in scoring position. I know Savant Sam playbyplay has expected batting average. What about for a season? Is that available anywhere? Yeah, I have it. Um that I wonder how much higher that is for him. I’ll pull that up for you right now. Uh after the after having no comeback victories since July 2nd, the Cubs got not one but two this weekend. Um so that was nice to see a little bit of result. 274. Wow. What’s his real average like? 240. 249. Okay. So that’s Yeah, that’s very clear. Very clear. Thanks for looking that up, by the way. Appreciate that. So, uh, two comeback wins this weekend for the Cubs. I I do like to see that. Uh, I I I don’t like that they’re getting by, you know, by a hair or two. I hear you. I hear you. Uh, we’re going to get into the offense later in the show and and and maybe into some reasons why Owen Casey didn’t start this weekend. He barely made an appearance this weekend. It’s frustrating for me as a fan. Um, but at this point, I am choosing to embrace this spot in the season. We’re going to get to it later in the show. The Brewers went past not only the Cubs, not only the Central, not only this baseball season. what they’re doing it ranks with with seasons in a long time at least right now what they’re doing I and and you know you keep I I I keep hearing in different outlets oh they’re going to cool down what evidence do you have to say that um so I I’m embracing the Cubs lot right now did they get passed up in a in a in a big fashion sure um but but I am focused on the wild card I want them to play at least two games at Wrigley Field. I I I I want them to play the Brewers in in the NLDS. Um and and that’s that’s where I’m at right now. Uh the Cubs are now 29 and eight when either Boyd Horton or Imanaga start and they score three plus. That happened when you were in attendance on Saturday, Sam. Uh 29-8 overall, 16-2 at Wrigley. Again, a little bit of offense goes a long way, right? Uh what did you think about council’s decisions this weekend? Yeah. Uh oddly enough, he chose, and I say oddly enough because Casey was otherwise on a milk carton this weekend. Oddly enough, he chose to pinchit Casey for Matt Shaw, who uh entered Sunday with the the the second best OPS in the National League in the second half. any observations from council this weekend? Yeah, just that just that he he doesn’t play trends, he plays he plays the whole year. So like when when he sat Shaw, he he’s telling Shaw, “Hey man, everything that you’ve done to improve and stuff, I don’t believe in that right now. I believe in the total body of work.” Um same with guys like Hap and Tucker. I know Hap had a good game on Sunday. Um hey, I don’t believe just because you’ve been struggling for two months. Um, I I believe in the in the total body of work and and I just think when your team is all struggling at once, you have to be able to ha have a little bit of uh flexibility with that and and and you saw Shaw was noticeably upset in the dugout when they pan Turner. I mean, noticeably upset. I And I’d be upset, too. I mean, think of what this kid’s had to go through. He’s had to go get sent down, come back up. He’s changing. He’s doing everything that they asked him to do and and he can’t get an AB. Um, and ironically, that’s the time they put in Casey. And then, you know, council’s quotes before the game about, hey, we got great outfielders. Yeah. Well, your outfielders haven’t been great in a long time. Um, you know, I I was talking to a few buddies in my group chat today, uh, for my fantasy baseball just explaining. I’m like, Kyle Tucker is is not only struggling, he has been one of the worst hitters in baseball since July 1st. Uh, and for for the first time, and rightfully so, it was time he got booed, Matt. Yeah, there was boobs this week. It it wasn’t a it wasn’t a it was a noticeable boo on Sunday after his 353rd uh ground out to first base. Now maybe they were booing because he didn’t run it out, but I don’t think it was that because then his next time he came up, it was still a little bit there. So, you know, you got to think about you got to think about this stuff. You can’t just you can’t just manage the new the the piece of paper or the binder and just go, well, the the law of averages the law of averages at some point you got to force it. Some point you got to play the trends. You got to say, hey, you know what? This guy might not be having a great year, but he but he’s been hit well lately. Lately matters in baseball. Lately, that’s an important word, of course. I heard a great quote from Joe Madden recently. The game is managed too much from the iPad. Yeah. And uh I I connect with that. We both do. Well, look no further than Saturday when the Pirates walked in half to get to the Cubs best hitter with runners in scoring position. Whatever the computer said, it was wrong. We continue to discuss this series and uh the lack of offense right after this. Today’s episode is brought to you by Prize Picks, the daily fantasy platform that lets you turn your football predictions into real rewards. Preseason is already heating up and college football isn’t far behind. Whether you’ve got your eye on bigname quarterbacks or breakout running backs, prize picks makes it easy to get in the game. Who are you most excited for this fall? I’m excited to see Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson. How are they going to gel? How are they going to mesh together? Uh what what’s the Bears defense situation? Special teams. You could go to prize picks, get involved with all these Bears plays, pick more or less on two to six Bears stat projections. If you get your picks right, you could cash in and win up to 2,000 times your money. Download the prize picks app today and use code locked on MLB to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That’s code locked on MLB to get $50 in lineups after your first $5 play. Prize picks from your game. Couple more notes from Cubs Pirates this weekend. Uh, I don’t know if I want to see the Assad Brown combo again. And, uh, Daniel Palencia was unavailable the last two games of this series due to illness. Yeah, shout out to Kitridge, man. That’s why Keller closed Saturday and Kitridge closed on Sunday. We wish the best to Valencia. Hopefully he gets healthy and he’s back on Monday when the Cubs face the best team since the 27 Yankees. All right, folks. The Cubs are Did Did you realize Why are you wearing that shirt right now? Uh because it’s it’s a uh easy transition shirt as I go from my prep to uh family dinner. I’ll put something else on right after. Got it. Okay. Okay, the Cubs are last in baseball in runs in August and it’s not close. They’ve scored 44 times in 15 games. It’s a Tucker if you’re listening on audio. They don’t hit 221 average. They don’t get on base 281. They don’t slug. 340 clip there. Uh meanwhile, the rotation is number one in all of baseball and erra in August. The bullpen for good measure is 10th in ERA. and Owen Casey or someone else could provide a Joel to the lineup after his promotion at least this past week. Casey started the day of his call up Thursday. Not to mention he played well that day despite no results, but got only one plate appearance in the three games against the Bucks. And my position is simple. You don’t know if he can provide a Joel unless he’s actually playing. And you mentioned this earlier. Here’s the council quote on Casey not starting this weekend. Quote, “We have a pretty good group of outfielders here. Owen has to cross that bar. We’re going to play the best guys every day. This is why we wrestled with calling them up.” Close quote. Well, then who call who who who decided that then? Because why is he just sitting there? We we have arrived at the point to discuss the left field, right field, and DH spots. And I don’t like to do this, especially to open a week’s worth of shows, but I was right. You said Hap was going to be benched. No, he’s not. People are calling for Seiya to miss a game a week. Tucker one of the six games a week. No, it’s not going to happen. Now, we’ve arrived at that spot, but it’s not going to happen. But Casey should play left, right, or DH at least, you know, a few times a week, right, Sam? Uhhuh. Uhhuh. They’re last in baseball in runs. They have the worst offense. It’s not close. Coming into Don’t And please don’t say do more at the trade deadline. No. Coming. How how are the Cubs supposed to know that Kyle Tucker would be the worst player on the team for a whole month? How coming into today with with another over Tucker was 170 250 170 in August with a 420 OPS. That’s on the heels coming off of uh 675 month. So he’s been horrendous for two months. Hap had a really big day today. Uh give him credit for that. Uh before that uh coming into today he was 200 315 333 with a 648 ops. Um I don’t Glad Hap is getting credit. I I don’t understand why you can’t find room when those are the numbers of those two guys. I I I really thought he wasn’t even going to play all weekend. He got he got a cameo Sunday. I’ve been I’ve been in the camp of It’s time to sit Tucker down and and and so for 10 days for an extended period though, right? So for 10 days and then let Casey play for 10 days and see how that goes. I think that’s a really fair thing. Um I don’t believe Seiya should be in this conversation. He’s starting to show signs. Um he’s not slugging, but 268, 392, 390. um on this team, you you might as well call him, you know, uh uh Stan usual uh with those numbers right now. So, uh another comparison of a righty hitter to a lefty hitter. Hank Aaron would have Yeah, Hank Aaron would have been better. Willie Mays would have been better. Manny Ramirez. Anyway, um you know, the great Frank Thomas, uh one of the most underrated. Did you at least enjoy your experience Saturday, especially with the planes overhead? Go Cubs. Uh the the the planes the planes really bothered me. Uh they were really scary. Uh I actually ducked at one point when one was coming towards the ballpark. Um I was thinking Yeah, Dererick Lee did that when I was a kid. I was at a game with their show. He hit the hit the dirt. Joe Deaggio was the guy I was missing in my head. Um yeah, I don’t understand why they can’t do that. I I I don’t like Kyle Tucker, man. I was at the game Saturday when he had his two hits. I mean, you couldn’t roll it through the hole any better. And the last one, it looked like I don’t understand his swing. It was so It was such a heavy rollover. And not to play the body language police, but you know, he really doesn’t look like he’s in a great place. What do the Cubs do well right now offensively? right now. Yeah. Do they have any identity as a team? No, they’re they’re they’re they hit they hit home runs that they don’t hit anymore. They haven’t hit home runs. And they don’t and they don’t steal bases. And and by the way, mark this down for our offseason. They don’t run any plays. Mark this down for our offseason calendar. Okay. Uh we need to talk about PCA’s base stealing problems. Okay. He he he doesn’t know how to steal a base correctly anymore. Last year when he got on first, it felt like Why is that? No. Well, I ask Quinton Barry. Well, I don’t have I don’t have a press credential and I want one. By the way, um thought Michael Bush showed some good signs this week. Oh, m Sam. Michael Bush hitting lead off is is crushing this team. I No, it is. It’s hurting the team badly. I’m I’m more positive. I I think Seya had a good series. Mike, the the Cubs failure to find a leadoff hitter is crushing the lineup. You don’t see that? I do. I do. I I don’t disagree at all. Willie Castro hasn’t been a great addition. They’re hitting one something in August. In fairness to him though, they haven’t faced a lot of lefties. He’s there to hit lefties. And I don’t think I’m not sure they face a lefty this week. Isn’t it all righties for the Brewers? Oo, my voice is cracked twice. I guess we’ll talk about that. Yeah. So, so you you know, you’re not going to see a whole lot of Willie Castro will pinch hit for Pete against Ashby. Yeah. Or like DL Hall. Okay. Or Kaning. Those are their three lefties. Well, uh, yeah, I’m with you. I’m with you on the council stuff. It’s mindboggling. Um, I’ll say this. I think I think against the next time there’s a lefty starter, Justin Turner should start it first. Of course, it’s it’s it’s not council’s fault that this is happening. No, it’s not. But I do believe he has not done a whole lot to help them get out of it. Is that fair to say? Yes. Although it does seem to be more systemic, right? If we do plant our flag, I don’t know what that means. Well, council is managing like most other managers. We’re I think we need to acknowledge that. Well, if if we did everything like every other show, how would we be? Well, well, and again, playing the scoreboard only brings pain. I get it. But but it that’s true. You got to be you got to do you got to be different. The Madden quote. They they they go out of the bind or an iPad. Well, so so I’m supposed to but but it’s the Cubs don’t have a leadership problem averaging 2.9 runs a game for an entire month. So I’m supposed to let him off the hook because everybody else does it. Maybe not. That that that you know that’s that’s not how I was raised. Oh, mom, I everyone else did it. So so I ended up uh skipping school, too. Tell that to my mom. I would have sat out. She would have benched me for weeks. Well, then the changes should have been made already. It’s August 17th. Flip. Shuffle the order. Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. I’m not saying that this is his fault. But I’m saying when a team is as consistently, this is now the second year under him that the team has collapsed in a two-month stretch. Okay. And there needs to be an effort of change, a spark, a rant. uh getting how about how about when Sei got tossed the or got rung up the other day at a pitch that literally would have been a ball to Bill Russell and we but we talked about this last year. Why can’t I talk about it again? That’s the perfect time to get your team going, man. You need personality in life. You can’t just sit there. He I’m not asking him to be like a a crazy person like me. Right. Right. Right. But I’m asking him not to be so much the other way. Meet in the middle. Show a little fight. You know, we don’t know what happens behind the scenes, but I mean, come on, man. You know, give Casey a chance. My position is make a lineup change. If they don’t do that, then how do we know? If they don’t actually follow through with that, we’re never going to know. But they they just don’t do it. I’m tired of status quo. We preview Cubs Brewers right after this. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel. August 26 is officially FanDuel Futures Day, a brand new holiday for football fans who live for bold predictions and pre-season hunches. For just 24 hours, FanDuel is giving you deals on NFL season predictions. So whether you’re calling your MVP, eyeing a longot division winner, or ready to crown your Super Bowl champ before week one even kicks off, this is your moment. Right now, overunder Bears 8 and a half. You could take that over at plus 125, but they don’t have a left tackle. So I don’t know how that’s going to work. Um they’re actually going to kick off here on the I think it’s in Chicago on the lake front. Maybe it’s in Buffalo. I don’t know where the preseason game is. Uh, in a couple of hours here they’re going to play their starters. Um, I’m not overly optimistic, but I am excited about the Illinois Fighting Ali football team. They’re overunder also at 8 and a half. Visit the Fan app today and start planning your futures bets now because Futures Day is one day and one day only. FanDuel, play your game. All right, we’re back here on Locked on Cubs and uh my control panel is stuck here. Uh Sam, can you help me out? Yeah. Yeah, I got you. Okay, thank you. Interesting. I’ll have to double check that after the show. Hey, the Brewers Play the Beatles song with Ringo. The Brewers are 78 and 45. They’re 29 and5 since July 6th. 39 and 10 since June 19th. This is the projected uh starting pitching matchups. Here it is. Horton Peralta that’s actually been confirmed now as a few minutes ago. Wow. What a what a dandy to start it. Tyion Patrick in the night cap. Then Boyd Woodruff Tuesday, Ray in the Miz Wednesday, Imanaga Pster on Thursday. This is a fivegame series and what what what do you want here? I have several bits of information uh that um I could I could pull up here and uh was which would you like first? Would you like to know background info on the Brewers five best players? No, I’d like to just give my take on the series. Okay, go ahead. Wednesday I will be at the game and I’m really disappointed that that’s the matchup. Um Ray and Mizerowski. Yeah, that’s not going to be very fun to watch. Um but yeah, uh look here here’s how I look at this series. I I I’m not I’m not going into this series thinking about a division title. I’m going into this series trying to build momentum towards a turnaround in our season. And this team has not lost a series Milwaukee in a very long time. And if you could find a way to to to take three out of five against this team, I think that would be a tremendous accomplishment and a tremendous step forward in trying to get yourself going again. I know that’s probably not what people want to hear. Uh we had Chris on the show who’s talking about taking all five. Um I I I I and I love Chris. Shout out Chris. I just I want to be realistic and I want to find a way to win this series because if you win this series, I believe even though the number would still be I believe seven or whatever it is back of the division, first of all, you would do yourself a huge favor towards the wild card because playing this juggernaut right now is challenging for five games. It would also give yourself a lot of confidence if you have to see these guys again and it would give you a lot of confidence. Hey, we just beat the best team in baseball that doesn’t ever lose series. we in a in a series plus because it’s a fivegamer. Um so that’s my goal uh is to find a way to win this series. Uh it’s going to be difficult but you know I I think I I really like the pitching matchups outside of Wednesday. Um who’s you said Pster? That’s that’s encouraging to hear. You said Pster versus who on Thursday? Okay. Yeah. Right. So that I like that matchup depending on the weather. Um Boyd Woodruff. I think Woodger’s thrown the ball great, but not as great as his numbers show. Okay. Um, Tyion Patrick’s just going to be a coming back from the Miners coin flip. We’ll see how that goes. Yep. And then and then, you know, the Cubs have actually done okay versus Peralta this year. I just I don’t you know, is it this Cubs team that’s especially last time? That’s the question though is is can this Cubs team handle a dude like that right now with the way they’re hitting? That’s the question. Yeah, it’s a and it’s one that’s looming for sure. Uh, but to get out of the gate on Monday like they did against him in the finale the last time, that would give me a lift if I could look at the score at at during the workday and see, oh, they’re up five to one in the sixth and Horton is rolling. They go to the pen and if they win game first one, if they win game one, nobody will get a better bigger lift than you. You love a big game one series win in a big series. never win the first game of a series anymore. Ever in a big series? No. I’ll be thinking of you if they go up four nothing in the six. I I’ll have an audio ready for you when that bell rings, dude. Oh, thank you. Because Oh, it’ll be like Rocky because I I’m going to miss Horton pitch. I love watching this guy, man. Well, maybe I’ll just give an audio. He’s been one of my favorite guys to watch on the whole team. Maybe I’ll call the whole game for you. No, that’ll get you get you out of that. That won’t work. Uh uh I I just All right, talk about these Brewers players. Well, they I don’t I don’t even know who it is. I think they’re the best. I I think they’ve surpassed the Dodgers at evaluating talent. I agree with you. They’re number one by war. The Brewers five best players this year. You’re muted. Sorry. That’s okay. Five more. The Brewers five best players this year are one first round pick. Uhhuh. Three players added in trades by two different GMs and a rule five pick. Who are they? Let me I’m trying to think. Can I should I guess who the five best guys have been? Yeah. Guess that. Well, Yelich is on there. Yeah, he’s on there. Um Isaac Collins. Yep. Uh, these are position players only, right? I don’t think it’s too hard of a list. Yeah. Sal Freelick. Uh, well, there’s one pitcher. Oh, Peralta. Peralta. So, Collins, Yelich, Peralta, two others. Not not Freelick. Freelick, I think, is sixth. Terang. Um, is it is it Durban? No. Uh, Van, it can’t be Vaughn. He hadn’t been there long enough. Uh Joey Ortiz, Contrarus. Yeah, he hasn’t even had a good year, but by good but for And by the way, Collins since July 6 when the Brewers have made this crazy run, it’s hitting 330 with an OBP of 415. Dude, they lost they they lost Jackson Cheerio for 14 games and they won all of them until today. In 31 games with the Brewers, Andrew Vaughn is slashing 327, 391, 611. I just think we’re we’re entering a territory where the style of baseball they play because the caveat with all this is they never they they win all the time in the regular season, they lose all the time in the postseason, right? But does this 2025 team tip the scales of the sport back to what they are doing? because they that seems to me where it’s trending right now. And entering Sunday, Fan Graphs projects them at their well-known a conservative platform in terms of their metrics. They project them for 99 wins. The century mark is not out of the question here. Oh no. They have not only taken over the division, but what they’re doing tracks with one of the better seasons in the sport in a long time. Especially the stretch. the stretch, you know, since 21 and 25. That’s it’s crazy, man. Yeah. I think I think, you know, I watch this team play a lot. I think what I would I think what I would say is when I watch them is that they’re so much greater. Um, you know, as you know, what’s that saying? The sum of their parts. Sure. You know, that whole thing like they’re they’re they’re greater as a whole. Um, and that the numbers of each individual guy isn’t going to wow you, but that’s not why they have success. They have success because they feed off each other. They almost play, you always hear this in football, complimentary football. Defense gets a threeand out, then the offense has good field position. They play complimentary baseball. They they help each other. They, you know, when when a guy’s on first, they they all of a sudden they they switch their approach. They first a third them like that. you make a mistake, they take advantage of you like that. It’s like they it really watching them play their real focus is winning baseball games. They’re not worried about and not to say that Cubs or other teams are worried about their slash line, but I think we all have a habit of, hey, this team’s good. What’s this guy hitting? What’s this guy’s hitting? But it’s really the way they play. It’s this this team’s good. What what are they doing each day to find a way to win a baseball game? A and and the real that that that is what their skill is. It’s not their ops. It’s not their on base. It’s not their slug. They are really good at finding ways to win baseball games. And unfortunately, we don’t have a met a metric for that, a metric for that. Um, we just call it, you know, in the in the analytical department, oh, it’s just luck. And I just think people say that it’s luck because at some point we’ll have a metric for like, hey, this guy’s a totally different hitter in this spot. They do this and, you know, they’re really, really good. And to beat them, you have to play mistake free baseball. So hopefully the Cubs could do that. And we’ll see. I think Monday 120 is a real big tone setter. But to emphasize a point from you earlier, wins could be the metric for identity and personality and buying in to a philosophy that they clearly have done. Well, Council said this weekend he’s not focused on results. Did you see that quote? Okay. Well, did you see that quote? No, we’re gonna have to end the show now. Did you see? Okay. I’m not making it up. This is locked on Cubs. process. We’ll be back after both games Monday. What is this? The Sixers. Your team every day for your second. Check out the allnew Locked on MLB game night. Every game every night all season long. Get local analysis on a national scale. Find MLB Game Night and the Locked on MLB channel on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcast. He’s Sam Olber. I’m Matt Cozy. This is Locked on Cubs.

We discuss the Cubs taking the series from the Pirates despite continued struggles on offense. Plus: Cubs/Brewers preview.

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