"We know we're better than this, but we can't prove it."
- Tony Gwynn
The Cubs send Jon Lester to the mound today. He's got a 2.18 ERA on the year (191 ERA+), and had a 1.13 ERA in June. His ERA at Wrigley is 1.25. His WHIP is 1.084. I guess what I'm saying is he doesn't allow a lot of run(s) or runner(s). Lester has 10 wins already and will likely contend for a Cy Young award. The Twins counter with Lance Lynn. He also has numbers associated with his pitching performance. They are not as good as Lester's and he will likely not contend for a Cy Young award. To my mind this season is still far from over and we have yet to stray into GOSO territory. But if you look real hard and squint your eyes a little, you can almost see it from here. Play ball!
Studly-O starts at 3B.
Astudillo gets us back into the category of "he might not be all that good but he's fun to root for". If we going to be losers, let's at least have some interesting and fun guys on the team.
Bases loaded 1 out, can we please score at least 1 run
HAHAHAHAHAHAH nope
Wow. Cave CLOBBERED that.
The Cave-Man!!!!
Cave hit that to Aurora
Well, we're going to get into their bullpen pretty early today, anyway. That's got to be good, right?
Yeah, at this point Lester just needs to book his five and take a rest.
Well, that's just dumb.
Good grief.
oy
Looks like this is going to be another fun game.
As Halsey used to say, a couple of grand slams and we're right back in the game.
At least it's early, there's time to chip away if we can get some bats working.*
*Not holding my breath
Dazzle said it's hard for Molitor to put together a lineup "because of who's swinging a good bat and who's not". Let me make it easy for you.
Who's swinging a good bat: Rosario and Mauer.
Who's not: Everyone else*.
*Escobar was, but has done nothing since he was hit by Porcello.
Heh. Dazzle wonders if the Cubs would let Gimenez pitch for the Twins today.
We're coming back! The lead's down to six!
I hope the Twins are embarrassed by how they've been dominated in this series, because they should be.
Astudillo showing the defensive skills!
Just back from lunch with the gang-- what'd I miss?
Yurgh!
Dozier! And the margin is down to five!
Dazzle's making a solid effort to claim the Twins are still in contention for the playoffs. You can't blame him for trying.
He's mathematically not incorrect.
At least we got an Escobar double out of this game.
The margin is back to five (again)!
An Astudillo triple!!! We're less than a grand slam away!
Garver!!!! We're down to one!
Alright, Caveman, I know you want the cycle, but a second home run would be better.
I have to get ready for Sunday evening worship. Bring it home, boys!
Well, they came back to make a game of it, at least. The funny part is this will go down as another one-run loss, when in fact it's pretty amazing that they even made it close.
Moli is attributing five runs scoring that shouldn't have when Lynn didn't cover first on the infield single after Lester's HR