Sykora's season line against the Mudcats up to 20 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 27 SO, 1 HBP. Just absolutely dominating this Mudcats lineup and looks like he's on pace to go 6 innings.
I'll be honest I was also a bit surprised they weren't playing the infield in with a runner on 3rd and 1 out in the 1st inning. They got a ground ball hit right at Guilarte. Infield in and there's probably a play at the plate there.
It's really a shame because the Mudcats pitching has looked really good and the difference in this game is because of a wild pitch by Rodriguez than Diaz blocked but then couldn't find despite being about 2 to 4 feet to his left.
Skyora with his first 1-2-3 innings of the game. Absolutely mowed down Yophery who had no chance. He's up to 19 scoreless on the year against the Mudcats
Guilarte strikes out as well. Sykora with 5 strikeouts through 2 innings. He has 40 pitches through 2 innings though which is the only potential silver lining.
Sorry I forgot Dinges singled before the Di Turi K. So 1 ball in play through 5 batters. Luis Castillo also just struck out. So 1 ball in play in the first 6 batters.
Just off is usually close enough for low minors umps to call strike 3. Rodriguez strike 3 to end the top half of the 1st inning looked further off that side of the plate than the Payne ball 3.
Mudcats don't put a single ball in play in the 1st against Sykora. Payne BB then picked off, Yophery strikeout, Baez HBP, Bitonti strikeout (swung 3 times and whiffed all 3 times)
Braylon Payne draws a leadoff walk to open the bottom of the 1st. I have no clue how he wasn't rung up on the 2-2 pitch. Hard to tell with minor league camera angles but looked like a pretty good pitch to me.
The Cubs sneaking into a WC spot is extremely unlikely considering both the Braves and Mets own tiebreakers over them which means they need to be 5 games better then the Braves and 6 games better than the Mets over the final 16 games to secure the WC.
If the Cubs who are 5-5 so far in September finished a scorching hot 12-4 to end the season then the Mets would only need to go 7-9 to finish above them and the Braves 8-8. Those teams also still have 3 games against each other so that’s guaranteed wins for one of those teams.
Basically the likelihood that the Cubs go 12 and 4 and both the Braves and Mets go under .500 the rest of the year is pretty unlikely and definitely not something worth stressing over as much as you clearly are.