What You Need to Know: Old. 78 combined years of age. Those were the first things I thought of when I saw who the starting pictures were going to be for today’s game. Cincinnati’s Bronson Arroyo is in his 16th year in the majors, despite missing the last two years. And as for the Cubs’ […]
Tag: Cincinnati Reds
Game 17 Recap: Cubs 12, Reds 8
What you need to know: With seven runs in the first two innings and 12 runs overall, the Cubs continued to beat the Reds pitching staff like a rented donkey. Jake Arrieta had a rough start but not in the way you would expect: he did not walk a single batter for the first time […]
The Machine: Using Greatness as a Barometer
When I first started considering putting a piece together comparing this Cubs troupe to The Big Red Machine, I expected it to be an exercise in reflecting on similarities. This star compares to that star. That role player is similar to this turd. I was hoping to find and delicately express how one silver haired genius […]
Division Preview: The Cincinnati Reds
‘Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away. – from “Ozymandias,” by Percy Shelley As recently as 2013, the Cincinnati Reds were a playoff baseball team, but their status now stands as a sad […]
Game 162 Recap: Cubs 7 Reds 4
The Cubs won 103* games this season. Top Play: The Cubs’ ninth inning made your humble author laugh out loud with a variety of emotions, the least of which being pity for the lowly Reds, who never figured out the 2016 Cubs (but who can blame them). Rafael Iglesias got two quick outs to begin […]
Series Preview: Cubs vs. Reds, September 30-October 2
If a Series Preview is written for a 100-win team on the last weekend of the regular season and everybody is looking towards the postseason, does it really exist? After all, the division has been clinched. The league’s best record is all sewn up. The season’s closing weekend is a final victory lap for what […]
Game 152 Recap: Cubs 9 Reds 2
The Cubs run differential has been an oft-discussed topic, and rightfully so with it sitting at a whooping +239. It feels like half of those runs have come against the Reds. It was going to be a tough year for the Reds, and the Cubs have certainly done their part to make sure that was […]
Game 151 Recap: Cubs 6 Reds 1
It was Social Media Night at Wrigley Field, and the Cubs came away with a clean victory against the Reds behind another gem from Jon Lester. The lefty shined, the Cubs came through with timely hits against what amounted to the lion’s share of the Reds bullpen, and one of BP Wrigleyville’s own made known […]
Game 150 Recap: Cubs 5 Reds 2
There’s a scene in the 1990 movie Awakenings when Robert De Niro’s character stands outside for the first time after decades in a catatonic state. He looks around with a sort of bewildered smile and remarks, “What a beautiful place the Bronx has turned out to be.” He says it almost like it’s caught him off […]
Series Preview: Cubs vs. Reds, September 19-21
With the strange weekend series against the Brewers behind them, the Cubs stay at Wrigley to face the other team holding up the bottom of the NL Central standings. The past series was one of tempered celebration — both because winning the division has felt like an expected inevitability and step in the process toward […]