Top Play (WPA): Let’s start with some good vibes, shall we? Before the Cubs Cubsed their way to maybe the Cubsiest loss all Cubs season, it looked like it might be a vintage Good Cubs comeback victory behind strong pitching from their ace. The Cubs scraped one run off of the Pirates’ lead in the […]
Author: Zack Moser
Skill, Not Luck: Jake Arrieta Is Struggling Edition
When I wrote of Jake Arrieta, the poet, I wrote of a man opening to us a window unto stories told and retold, a narrative through line from generations past to today. Since, that window has closed slightly. Arrieta has struggled recently, and has looked decidedly human. He’s not bad—far from it. After all, NL […]
Game 80 Recap: Mets 4 Cubs 3
Look, before starting this recap, go search “cute dogs” or something. The All-Star break is near, the Cubs are scuffling, and Jake Arrieta is out of whack. The Cubs have dropped the first three games of the series to the dreaded, hated, despicable, unfathomably evil Mets. Top Play (WPA): The lone bright spot in this […]
Series Preview: Cubs vs. Mets, June 30-July 3
Extremely soused Don Draper voice: “Step right up and greet the Mets…” When asked about the upcoming four-game set against the Mets in Queens, Kyle Hendricks said, “We’ve got a little chip on our shoulders.” Well, the Cubs might enter the series with a chip on their shoulder due to last year’s NLCS sweep to […]
Almora, Contreras Helping Save Cubs as Depth Gains in Importance
Dexter Fowler CF Ben Zobrist 2B Anthony Rizzo 1B Kyle Schwarber LF Jorge Soler RF Miguel Montero C Tommy La Stella 3B If you didn’t know any better, you might think that that was a lineup run out by Joe Maddon on a getaway day in 2016. Of course, you do know better (and probably […]
Game 75 Recap: Cubs 11 Reds 8
Top Play (WPA): Bachelorette frontrunner Reigning Rookie of the Year Kris Bryant is five home runs away from his 2015 total of 26, following an impressive three-dinger night in Cincinnati. His first—a solo shot in the third—put the Cubs up 3-2 (+.119). His second, however, was the game’s lynchpin: with Jake Arrieta and Jason Heyward on […]
Game 54 Recap: Cubs 5 Diamondbacks 3
Top Play (WPA): It was all Hammel, all afternoon in this one. Not only did the pitcher stifle the D-Backs’ offense, but Hammel added to his already-impressive list of RBI singles this season in the fourth. With one out in the inning, Anthony Rizzo hit a high pop fly toward left field. It was one […]
Jake Arrieta Is Full of the Ghosts of Poets Past
“Pitchers are obviously not human.”i Mid-century California poet Jack Spicer wrote this, referring more to poets themselves—who he conceived of as catchers, receiving dictation from an otherworldly muse—than to pitchers, in any kind of baseball sense. As a poet of the Berkeley Renaissance of the 1950s and ’60s, Spicer developed some idiosyncratic theories about poetry […]
Series Preview: Cubs vs. Dodgers, May 30-June 2
Dear reader, this is where I say “I told you so.” The Los Angeles Dodgers roll into Wrigley Field on Monday with a middling 26-24 record, good for second place in the NL West, but 4 1/2 games behind the Giants. Meanwhile, their starting pitching—behind Clayton Kershaw and the currently-injured Kenta Maeda—has been predictably suspect. […]
Game 46 Recap: Cubs 6, Phillies 2
The Cubs are back in town again, after a long, trying road trip, and they came away with a soggy victory on Friday. The skies opened up in the first inning of this one, pouring down rain on the Cubs, Phillies, and fans indiscriminately, and a delay looked probable. The wind shifted several times, alternately […]