There are signs of fall all around us. Labor Day is just around the corner. Some of the trees are starting to change color. The Bears are…well, we’re not quite sure what they’re doing. But the surest sign of fall was on display Saturday, when Joe Maddon took Jason Hammel out in the third inning. It’s a surer sign that fall has arrived than when Binny’s adds an entire row of pumpkin beer selections.
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We saw this a lot late last year, and into the playoffs. Hammel not being able to keep the ball down, then throwing sliders that don’t do much sliding. Maddon sighs hard in the dugout and decides he’s seen enough of that, and Hammel grumbles as he storms off the mound short of 40 pitches.
Saturday’s early hook seemed superfluous. The Cubs had a 14-game lead over those-hard charging Cardinals (the Cards are 12-12 in August…it’s really breathtaking to see that well-oiled machine roll), and you figured Maddon would let Hammel work his way out of it. Hammel hadn’t been hit really hard, with the notable exception of Corey Seager’s first inning homer that probably changed the molecular structure of that baseball. But there was Maddon, with one out in the third inning and a runner at second. He went to the immortal Rob Zastryzny, and seemed eager to do it. Zastryzny entered with the Cubs trailing 3-1 and 3 2/3 innings later, the score was still the same. Lefties are Kryponite to the Dodgers this season, and Hammel’s 39 movement-less nothing balls gave Maddon a perfect reason to go to his still-stretched-out lefty in the bullpen.
In his career, Hammel has always performed worse in the second half than the first, and the Cubs — and Cubs fans — had been waiting for him to turn into a pumpkin-infused pale ale since the All-Star Break. But to his credit, Hammel had been very good in the second half this year. That is until he pitched poorly and the Cubs played terrible defense behind him in a pasting by the Rockies last weekend.
We’ve seen a lot of Hammel over the last three seasons, and Maddon goes all the way back to Hammel’s Tampa Bay days. Neither Maddon nor us has much experience seeing Hammel struggle early in a game, then get it together.
So instead of waiting for Adrian Gonzalez to make it 5-1, Maddon yanked Hammel. Hammel didn’t like it. That’s fine. You don’t want your starting pitcher to be fine with getting yanked that early. Matt Clement always looked like the most relieved person in the world when Dusty Baker would finally take him out. But as much as Hammel may have been distressed to leave a game in the third inning in August, those of us who had to watch weren’t too wild about seeing him allow double, single, RBI single, wild pitch, RBI ground out, and single to start the inning.
The Cubs are going to shorten their rotation from five to four for the playoffs, and unlike this year there’s no Dan Haren to make that an easy decision. This time it’s Hammel.
Since his three-day vacation in Denver, Jason Heyward is eight for his last 23 (.348), and looked especially good on Sunday, with a couple of hard hits and a ball that was smoked down the line with runners at first and third, only to be snagged by Gonzalez. The J-Heyaissance started with a wall-scraper of a homer in San Diego on Monday. His late pinch-hit at-bat on Friday was a thing of beauty. Despite the large checks he’s cashing, he doesn’t have to be great at the plate to be valuable, but he does have to be useful, and recent results (albeit over just a few games) are promising.
If the rebound continues, Danny Jackson’s status as worst Cubs free agent signing, ever, will remain unchallenged.
Of all the guys to throw to the wrong base on a defensive shift, just about the last one you’d think would do it is Javy Baez, right? The only redeeming feature of Baez throwing to second with two outs and the bases loaded in a tie game against the Dodgers on Sunday, instead of taking the easy out at first, is that it gives Cubs fans an extra day to figure out whether to tweet out a photo of Kevin Roberson or Brooks Kieschnick when the Cubs’ magic number drops to 19.
There is, of course, no right or wrong answer when it comes to choosing Anthony Rizzo or Kris Bryant for MVP. Both are having great years, both are “aw shucks” fan favorites, and both are lighting up NL leader boards. It will really come down to two things:
- Which guy gets hot last. Both have alternated torrid stretches, which is one of the many reasons the Cubs have won so many games. Will one of them leave a lasting final impression on the voters?
- Will they split the balloting, allowing another player having an impact season to sneak in and win it? In this case, I think we all know we’re talking about David Ross.
The hot topic now that the playoff spot and division title are forgone conclusions (yes, even for the Cubs) and the home field advantage race is still lopsided, is how are the injured Cubs healing up? John Lackey didn’t think he should be on the disabled list in the first place and he’ll be activated without a single rehab start when he’s eligible. Hector Rondon’s been throwing without setback and should be back in plenty of time to get enough work in September to be tuned up for the playoffs. Pedro Strop has gone from posting Instagrams of Jorge Soler being disappointed at what Baez got to eat during a rain delay, to videos of himself sprinting just over a week after his knee surgery. Chris Coghlan is, well, nobody really cares.
MLB and ESPN announced that the Cubs game at Houston on Sunday, Sept. 11 has been selected for Sunday Night Baseball. I think this can only mean one thing. It’s the Cubs’ last regular season chance to use a designated hitter. Now batting, No. 12…
It was really cool that CSN Chicago picked up Vin Scully’s call of the entire third inning of the game Sunday. It was a great chance for Cubs fans without the MLB Extra Innings package to get one last listen to Scully, who is retiring after 67 years as the Dodgers announcer. Scully tailored his inning to localizing his patented anecdotes for the Chicago audience. But, as great as that was, it was only the second most riveting part of a Cubs broadcast this past week. On Wednesday afternoon, Cubs radio announcers Pat Hughes and Ron Coomer traded stories about former Brewer/Oriole/Yankee/Athletic immortal Lenn Sakata for a good five minutes. If you missed it, don’t worry, I’m sure Cooperstown will be adding it to the archives post haste.
Cubs fans had a grand time making fun of the White Sox for selling the naming rights to their ballpark to a mortgage company with an unwieldy name and a logo that features a big red arrow pointing straight down. Seems like these same Cubs fans forget that their favorite team sold the naming rights to their sprawling spring training complex to a company who makes all of the stuff that make toilets flush. So I won’t pile on with my clever idea that we just refer to new Comiskey as Second Rate Park.
Glad I didn’t actually use that joke. Wow, it was terrible.
This week gives the Cubs a chance to shape the NL Wild Card race as they play three at home with the Pirates and four with the Giants. The San Francisco series starts on Sept. 1 and will probably feature the return of Tommy La Stella. His press conference is going to be pretty tense. Let’s hope Henry Blanco does a better job of interpreting this one.