thoughts I had as this game was going on
1: the carriage is turning back to a pumpkin awful quickly
2: I wonder if tickets for Game 5 have dropped in price? (A bit! Hmmm.)
3: the great Tommy La Stella is 0 for 7 with 3Ks in the playoffs.
4: Starlin Castro went from never playing SS even as a backup to being the guy finishing out every game at SS. I’m going to miss him next season.
5: Everyone’s talking about the pitchers giving up 4 runs. They’ve given up 4 runs before. It’s more you’re not going to win games scoring 2 and 1 runs.
6: Really, the power covered up the problems with not getting enough base runners; six home runs in one game only producing eight runs is kind of not good in a way.
7: The silver lining to going down 3-0 in a series is seeing the Kitchen Sink game, with the Cubs trying crazily to win game 4 at any cost. Lester coming back on short rest is in play. Three inning starter is in play. Fernando Rodney starting and batting fifth is in play. Just having Jason Hammel pitch six innings probably not in play.
8: That might also happen in this game. The Cubs dipped into the bullpen in Game 2, but everyone’s probably as rested and ready to go as they can be. Hendricks will be pulled at the first sign of trouble. Rondon hasn’t pitched in a week, so he’s going to be in at some point tonight. This’ll probably look a lot like Game 4 of NLDS; it’s all about the offense scratching something out.
9: if the Cubs can find a way to win one of the next two games, then Lester and Arrieta come up again and maybe they’ll find a way to be better, and anything is possible in a game 7. I don’t feel like it’s over even with a loss tonight.