Pete Crowe-Armstrong and Owen Caissie (Creative Commons Minda Haas Kuhlmann | Openverse)
The Chicago Cubs lost another heartbreaker to the San Francisco Giants Monday night. This time the score was 7-6. Hector Nervis blew another game with an assist from catcher, Miguel Amaya. Nervis has been a nightmare all year and Amaya has regressed terribly. But no need to worry based on what manager Craig Counsell and president of baseball operations have had to say about the situation.
The Cubs actually had a 6-3 lead at one point in this game, powered by a three-run homer by Ian Happ in the seventh inning.
Come the ninth inning and the Cubs still led 6-4. Then, Enter the Drag Down, aka Hector Neris. After getting the first out, catcher, Miguel Amaya found a new way to hurt the team, by interfering with Giants’ hitter, Jorge Soler. Then came the obligatory Neris walk, followed by a three-run homer by Thairo Estrada.
It’s nice to see Neris has been working on a new pitch, the gopher ball.
Craig Counsell refuses to throw Cubs’ fans a bone
In his postgame press conference, Counsell downplayed the idea of Neris no longer being the closer and defended his performance, saying: “I wouldn’t anticipate doing that,” Counsell said. “We had the catcher’s interference, we had a walk and, frankly, (Estrada’s homer is) a fly ball. It’s the wrong night to give up fly balls.”
And I suppose if he was asked about Jeffrey Dahmer, he would say the poor guy had an eating disorder.
But help is on the way
Mike Tauchman suffered groin tightness after legging out an infield hit. It looks like Tauchman will be out for at least four weeks. Not to worry, Cubs fans, Miles Mastrobuoni is being called up. The fact that I’ve seen enough of Mastrobuoni to know how to spell his name really irks me.
The Cubs could have called up Owen Caissie, Alexander Canario, or almost anybody else and given the fans some hope. No threat of that with Mastrobuoni.
It’s like the Cubs spit in Cubs’ faces by indicating Neris would be the closer and then kicked them in the groin by calling up Mastrobuoni. Look for them to complete the disrespect trifecta by adding Kyle Hendricks to the rotation, figuratively mooning their fans.
Which data do you look at?
Cubs look at Christopher Morel‘s underlying stats and say he should get better results. Well, maybe, but maybe not. Neris’s peripheral numbers have been horrific, but Cubs’ management seems unfazed.
Guys like Caissie and Canario may help in the future, Swanson and Hoerner have been excellent in the past, but have been disappointing this season. Swanson has been colder than his TV dinners and really doesn’t pass the eye test.
Somebody turn on the bat signal. Fast!
