One of my new mantras is going to be that the thing that is going on right now is not permanent. I’ll tidy it up into something more concise. Be it Kyle Tucker or the Cubs overall struggles, they were not set in stone. The team and Kyle weren’t going to perpetually underperform. The great player and the very good team were always in there, looking for an opportunity to break out. This is why we don’t DFA or otherwise send players into oblivion during a slump, if there are reasons to believe that this isn’t a permanent thing.
Tucker has now homered three times in two games after a long drought. The Cubs have now won five of six despite a long period of mediocrity. Saturday night’s game was one of the most fun games in weeks. Those Brewers games were great baseball and had a ton of drama. It was early playoff baseball. This was not that. This was an old fashioned WWF squash match. The Cubs were up 6-0 after four and 10-0 after six. The offense exploded and on the other side, Cade Horton was out of this world dominating the Angels.
The fun thing about recognizing that the struggles weren’t permanent is conceding that the good things aren’t permanent either. I don’t anticipate that Horton is heading on some Jake Arrieta-like run or that the Cubs are back all of the way and will have a Brewer-like run. When the results get to the extremes, it is reasonable to expect that they will gravitate back to the middle. But I’m going to revel in this period of excellence for guys like Horton and these bounce back games for Tucker and the team as a whole. Your mileage may vary, but my Cub experience is looking for the good and finding the joy in it. This is my release from the stresses of life and I don’t need to dwell on the bad parts of it.
I don’t think it is fair to throw around Arrieta comps for Horton. Arrieta is revered by Cub fans for one of the more dominating runs in modern history. That run included a World Series title, a Cy Young and two other top 10 Cy Young finishes. That period from 2014 to 2016 was like a shooting star. Horton has a long way to go and foisting Cy Young or World Series champion expectations on a young man is unfair. All of that said, Horton is on the kind of run that Jake had at his peak. Cade doesn’t yet have that thing where you feel like he might be about to throw a no hitter. But, he’s been extremely dominant.
If I’ve seen something like last night’s Horton start, shame on the announcers for me being unaware of it. Horton threw 21 strikes to start the game and had thrown only one ball in the first three innings. At the end of his six innings of work, he’d thrown 55 strikes out of 74 pitches. It felt pretty clear that Cade could have gone another inning or two had the situation called for that. The cherry on top was striking out Mike Trout three times.
Who knows how high Horton can climb. He was relatively unheralded coming through the system. That is to say that he didn’t come with all of the buzz of a Kerry Wood or a Mark Prior. For my mental well-being, I’m going to stop throwing out names of shooting star former Cub pitchers. Guys who rubbed shoulders with some of the all time greats for short periods of time but tailed off and/or were derailed by injuries. Enjoy the Cade ride. I almost want him to keep being our little secret. Though many more games like Saturday’s and he’s not going to be anybody’s secret.
Cubs: 119, 33 BFAngels: 140, 44 BF
Hopefully you watched some or all of this game, because these numbers don’t do the game much justice. The 44 batters faced is a peek. But the Cubs forced the Brewers to throw more than 140 pitches in multiple games in that last series and there weren’t many crooked numbers in that whole series.
For Cub pitching, just an eyelash over 13 pitches per inning. That got slightly inflated during Ben Brown’s three innings of work. Horton was down closer to 12. Brown gets a hat tip for the three-inning save and making sure that the Cubs have their whole bullpen available for Sunday’s game. The three inning save in a blowout was one of my earliest baseball amusements and it has never not amused me. If I were slightly more ambitious, I’d be handing out an award every year to the most absurd save of the year. Somewhere in my head, there is a game where the Rockies were blown out this year where was a 15+ run gap between the teams.
On the Angels side, 140 is not garish. It’s under 16 pitches per inning and you can skate with a pitch count that high, particularly if the inflated number is due in some part to a lot of strikeouts. I guess, the other side of the coin is that the “low” pitch count is evidence of just how dramatic the beatdown was. It was fast. The Angels only walked three batters (and hit one). Though all of those mattered. All three walks and the hit by pitch were along for the ride on homers that followed and contributed to the score.
This might have gotten really ugly, but the Angels had infielder Oswald Peraza throw two innings and the Cubs pretty aggressively swung at his batting practice pitches. Carson Fulmer is the only of the Angels relievers that did pitch in this one that won’t be available for Sunday. He threw 35 pitches while recording four outs and allowing six runs before being walked off with a trainer.
The top two can go in any order, but I give Horton the top spot for his sheer dominance.But Kyle Tucker had a pair of homers and a double in his first three at bats. I almost wish he’d been one of the players that left the game when the bench was emptied. Of course Craig Counsell leaves him in to chase a great night but then he got an at bat in silly time and rolled over a grounder.Reese McGuire had just one hit and a sacrifice fly. But the hit was a grand slam and that was the one that blew the game wide open.
Game 130, August 23: Cubs 12, Angels 1 (75-55)
Reminder: Heroes and Goats are determined by WPA scores and are in no way subjective.
Superhero: Kyle Tucker (.208). 3-5, 2 HR, 2B, 5 RBI, 2 RHero: Cade Horton (.193). 6 IP, 22 BF, 3 H, BB, 0 ER, 7 K (W 8-4)Sidekick: Reese McGuire (.180). 1-4, HR, SF, 5 RBI, 2 RBilly Goat: Willi Castro (-.059). 2-5, RGoat: Seiya Suzuki (-.024). 1-5Kid: Dansby Swanson (-.012). 1-4, 2B, HBP, RBI, R
WPA Play of the Game: Kyle Tucker’s two-run homer with two outs in the third opened the scoring in the game. (.204)
*Angels Play of the Game: With one out and a runner on second in the second inning, Victor Mederos got Nico Hoerner to pop out. (.036)
Yesterday’s Winner: Javier Assad received 153 of 211 votes (PCA second at 49).
Rizzo Award Standings: (Top 5/Bottom 5)
The award is named for Anthony Rizzo, who finished first in this category three of the first four years it was in existence and four times overall. He also recorded the highest season total ever at +65.5. The point scale is three points for a Superhero down to negative three points for a Billy Goat.
Kyle Tucker +24Matthew Boyd +23Shōta Imanaga +22Michael Busch +16.67Jameson Taillon +14Julian Merryweather -15Carson Kelly -16Ben Brown -19Dansby Swanson -26.33Seiya Suzuki -30
Scoreboard Watching: Dodgers (Wild Card 2) lose (Cubs up 2). Padres move past the Dodgers. Mets (WC 3) win (Cubs up 5.5). Reds lose (Cubs up 8). The Reds need to finish 23-9 to reach 90 wins. And I’ll still take the over on 90 wins. This team is closing on a full lock on a playoff spot. Since they made progress, I’ll note that the Brewers lost and the Cubs are back six in the Central. That still looks untouchable, but we’ll peek at it from time to time.
Up Next: The Cubs look for a Sunday afternoon sweep in Anaheim. They’ll send Jameson Taillon (8-6, 4.26, 101.1 IP) to the mound in his second start coming off of the IL. He was terrific in his return against the Brewers. This Angels team can definitely be held down. It would be terrific if Jameson could do it and the Cubs could notch the sweep to start this three-city trip.
I suspect I don’t have to write a long bio on Angels starter Kyle Hendricks (6-8, 4.93, 126). He’s 1-2 with a 5.61 over his last seven starts (33.2 IP). He did throw six on Tuesday against the Reds and allowed four runs on eight hits and three walks. He hasn’t won in August. He sandwiched a couple of good starts to end July and start August, ending up as the loser in one of them anyway.
This is a winnable game. Go get it.