Cub Tracks takes the fifth

The going is weird. Cub Tracks™ turned pro a long time ago. Cub Tracks™. Where the great ones run away.

Any MLB team can beat you. The good teams WILL beat you.

The game was on Apple TV+, where the broadcasting crew are Wayne Randazzo and Dontrelle Willis. They’re not great. Randazzo is lower-key ‘Boog pro’ to coin a phrase, and Willis stumbles over his words a bit. He’s not a sesquipedalian like Schmoltz, at least. Heidi Watney has flat-out found her level with this group. She tried to promote the non-fight between the Cubs and Willson Contreras as symbolic of the rivalry narrative. I have foam bricks to throw on such occasions. I did so. Paul Sullivan* {$} had some of that in his column. Say no more.

Meanwhile, back at the game, the Cubs deployed Colin Rea against long-time foe Miles Mikolas. Rea started out well and kept it going, with some help from the Cubs’ all-universe defense, and the Cubs greeted Mikolas with two warning-track flies and four jacks courtesy of Seiya Suzuki and Pete Crow-Armstrong, who went back-to-back, and Michael Busch and Carson Kelly who went bombs away in similar fashion.

Batting around off that guy in the first? Yes, please. That was worth the sawbuck. PCA did it again. He just flat-out owns Mikolas. Michael Busch might dispute that ownership, based on a very small sample size. Wow. And then.

Too many highlights.

Today’s game was planned as a bullpen game, last we heard.

*means autoplay on, (directions to remove for Firefox and Chrome). {$} means paywall. {$} means limited views. Italics are often used on this page as sarcasm font. The powers that be have enabled real sarcasm font in the comments.

Jared Wyllys (MLB.com*): Blasts in bunches: Cubs crush franchise-record 8 homers vs. Cardinals. “Those half dozen homers set a Cubs record for the most in the first three innings of a game.”

Peter Marzano (NBC Sports Chicago*): Cubs set franchise record with 8 home runs in win over Cardinals. “The onslaught comes in the first game of a three-game set against the Cubs’ archrival.”

Zoe Grossman (Marquee Sports Network*): Cubs takeaways: What we learned in series-opening win over Cardinals. “For the second straight season, the Cubs rocketed four home runs off of Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas.”

Patrick Mooney (The Athletic {$}): The question again hanging over the Cubs at the trade deadline: If not now, when? “… the Cubs will be operating with a sense of urgency and from a position of strength.” Mooney has more {$}.

Davis Cordova (The Norman Transcript*): Norman native Cade Horton pitches seven shutout innings in Chicago Cubs’ win. “Horton had his best professional outing after one of his worst.” Andy Martinez has more.

Matt Snyder (CBS News*): How the once-maligned Cubs bullpen is getting it done with a motley crew of relievers. “Daniel Palencia, Brad Keller, Drew Pomeranz and Caleb Thielbar are part of an elite bullpen unit in 2025.”

Food for thought:

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Cub Tracks takes the fifth

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