Cool Hand Lucroy

When Chourio walks, you know you've entered strange territory. Of course, Contreras restores "order," at least in terms of how things have been lately.

I was pretty worried about Miz tonight. Easy to say now. Really, he's just gotta make that throw. Got out of it with 3, so hold them here and hope we grind as well as the Cubs did that inning. They put together good ABs.

Boyd is on a 23-inning scoreless streak. He's just been crazy awesome this year, especially over his last ten starts. Hasn't given up more than 2 runs in a game since late May, against the Reds at the very hitter-friendly GAB. Sits low 90s, but with a really good change-up. Obviously, this is a big series, but it's probably not as big as we think with the 5-gamer in August coming. Sure, if someone sweeps, okay. But any outcome other than that is probably not going to flip the odds around too much. I definitely think the pressure is more on the Cubs down the stretch, but Fangraphs has them about 60-40 favorites to win the division (the Reds still are being given a shot too, and have been playing awesome baseball), and that seems right to me. Either way, let's get back on a winning streak.

We didn't hit at all on Friday. We hit the minimum amount yesterday (and pitched poorly). Today, we haven't hit at all again, plus a little bad luck. Frustrating, but what are you going to do? This was definitely a "trap" series, but hopefully they can scrap one of those 5-hit innings and take it and then win a Cubs series. Functionally, there's a big emotional difference between winning today and not, but not much of an actual one, what with 8 games left against the Cubs a solid lead in the WC standings.

Yeah, the Marlins have been tough on us this year, winning the Miami series notwithstanding. This definitely feels like a big game. I'm just trying to balance myself out a little bit because I still the Cubs are the favorites in the division, and I expect it to be quite tough to win the division and get the bye. Obviously, I'd rather win the division than be a wild card team, but it doesn't matter TOO much if we're even the fifth or sixth seed versus the third. I think homefield is overrated and maybe even a pressure-adder, even though the revenue obviously helps.

Kind of half focused on the soccer game right now, but it really is hard to see how these Marlins don't have a few more wins. Seems like a very competitive roster.

105 EV with a 27 degree launch angle. That's pretty much how you want to hit it. Just the tiniest bit more carry needed.

Really poor start from Quintana doomed us tonight. We were going to have a dip here, obviously. Hope they get it right soon. These next four are really important.

Haven't had one to forget in a while. Flush it, and move on. Honestly more disappointed in the offense today. Struggled to get any good ABs all day.

There are lots of ways to define good. This team is obviously good. Very good. Just good in ways that are very unsexy and hard to see unless you're watching them pitch-by-pitch and inning-by-inning, and fewer and fewer people consume baseball (or any non-football sport) that way these days. As far as expectations for the rest of the year: The Cubs are the NL Central favorites (I've seen anything from -135 to -280). That seems right (though -280 seems absurd and totally like a play to balance out ridiculous amounts of public money). I think just schedule-wise, the Cubs are going to be really hard to beat over 63 games. I'd love to do it and grab a postseason bye, but I also want to be realistic. That said, there are benefits to being a WC team. Even if we haven't passed the Cubs over the last ten games, we've really widened our lead and solidified a comfortable playoff position. I am not ever going to underrate that. More than anything, I want to win a playoff series this year, whenever that is. The fan base deserves that. And this year's team has the whiff of magic about it, reminding me a lot of the 2019 Nationals in terms of a bad start and a super hot finish. Whatever happens, going to be fun. To end, a word on Pat Murphy: I don't think he's a great in-game manager still. He might be below average. But attitude-wise, teaching-wise, getting guys to believe-wise, you really couldn't ask for more. I was wrong about that hire. I thought it was very blah, very boring, and even a little bit of wishful thinking. Shows what I know. As early as May, I was like "this is why Pat Murphy can't hack it long term," but this team is just playing different than everyone else in baseball. It's hard to translate to stats, but you can ABSOLUTELY see it when you watch the games. I swear, when Perkins scored on that Mona hit, Murphy was asking him if he was running hard into home plate. They kind of laughed about it, and maybe I am just projecting something onto an incident I have no clue about it, but I loved it. Murph is so earnestly "old-school," or "rah-rah," or "team game" that it looks like he's coaching a college team. We all know that. We hate it sometimes. But it's working. Go Crew!!

Mark Loretta is one of my all-time favorite Brewers

Is this ride or die with Abner, or do you try to play matchup in the ninth?

Joey Ortiz is an out thief.

Playing matchup with the two lefties up.

Mona taking the extra base. Dodgers helping with some poor fielding.

Kind of figured we were going to have to score quite a bit today. Still plenty of time to do so, but about as much of a house money game as it gets, especially with every one of our close competitors losing and the bullpen having been pushed a bit the last two days.

Betting on seeing some DL Hall today.

So, if Sal is ready soon, we can replace Black with him, right? Would be him or Siegler? I know it's only a few games, but Perkins is a legit big-leaguer.

Anyone know what we are base runs wise? It really seems to my eyes like we crush base running. We score from first on doubles. Go from first to third wonderfully. Steal bases. Hit and run. Avoid making unnecessary outs (perhaps our biggest weakness is caught stealing, but that is at least somewhat the result of aggressiveness). On the other side, our infield and outfield range has to be elite. I'll bet we steal tons of outs. The Cubs fan talks about speed but doesn't really mention base running or defense, which feels to me like the key pieces or org philosophy that are statistically measurable.

Brewers Devil Magic!!!!!

There are other things you can pick up in, I guess. But it's one of those "impossible to disprove" conjectures. I think Freddy nibbled and threw some bad pitches the Dodgers punished. Did good to hear down for the final two outs. And Collins delivers!!

Well, new game.

I mean, a decent part of this is that the Dodgers can just hit...

Going to be a race. Cubs should be favorites given their schedule. Not too worried either way. That 5-game series at Wrigley in August is going to decide a lot, with a nice little appetizer next week.

I feel like it says a lot about baseball economics that the point of making a QO is to have it declined.