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Reckless Recap: 10/17/15 Cubs 2/Mets 4 "Dark Night for Cubs"

by Boutros Boutros Ghali

I realized that all of these post season recaps are somewhat superfluous since everyone is already watching the games. During the regular season, I'm trying to act as your conduit to all the games the reader can't watch because they are one of the 85% of decent people who have jobs and do not have the three hours a day to see what the Cubs are doing.

So, I've decided to go a little different (not much) for the rest of the post season and just tell you what I thought about the game. A little more analysis and a little less play-by-play. 

It was Johnny Paycheck vs The Dark Knight in New York on Saturday in a windy, cold game at Citi Field. Lester got very little from the Handsome Youngsters yet again and Matt Harvey was "The Rest of the Story." 

Lester gave up two homers and the first one came with two outs in the first inning. According to him, the ball was a cutter that cut too much and ended up right over the plate rather than working across the outside edge.call animated GIF

Major League batters take advantage of that kind of thing all the time and Eddie Murphy got that one. The fact that it went towards right field did not help as the wind was whipping out to right and any well struck ball had a chance out that direction.

Later, Lester gave up another homer to Travis Dr.No. The Bond villain was able to take advantage of a sinker that did not drop out of the zone like Lester wanted. It happens to all pitchers because they are facing MLB hitters. 

The big thing everyone wants to bitch about is that Johnny Paycheck is getting a lot of money. That's ridiculous because there is not a pitcher in the league that carries his wallet out to the mound.

If his fat wallet was sitting on his hip causing his pitches to miss, then you might have an argument. Less money does not change what Lester does. 

Beyond that, he gave up some weak ass contact that just happened to find the ground in fair territory and a couple of balls that got past Bryant at third. Weak contact is what a pitcher wants and when that does not work out for him, it is not his fault. Thems the breaks sometime. 

On the mound for the Mets, Paul Harvey was tough on the Cubs, but I don't think the Handsome Youngsters did themselves any favors on how they attacked the guy. Harvey's agent, Boras Badenov, is ridiculously frightened about having his pitchers actually throw any balls so the Cubs should have gone up there looking to make Harvey throw a lot of pitches. 

They did not. Fowler and Schwarber both struck out swinging at pitches outside of the zone. They may have done that because Drake was giving a little on the outside, but it's hard to tell with TBS having a crappy K-Zone that nobody watching can trust. 

Bryant and Rizzo both swung and made weak contact with the first pitch. Castro hit the third ball he saw weakly and Soler just watched three straight strikes go past him. Harvey was pitching pretty well, but it was ridiculous that the Cubs were not working deeper counts.

After two innings, the Cubs had only seen 16 pitches, which allowed Harvey to work at least one extra inning at the end of the game. The only Cub to make him really work the first time through was Ross with 6 pitches including a foul ball that just missed being a home run. 

In regards to Ross and Lester being in the lineup, this has to change. I'm okay with Ross catching if Lester needs it, but Maddon has to move Ross somewhere else in that lineup so that they do not keep coming up to the plate together essentially giving the pitcher a one-out inning to work with. 

Ross could hit 6th with Lester 9th, which would usually put them in two different innings. Or at the very least, go back to Lester in the 8th spot and give Baez a chance to start a rally instead of having Lester end an inning easily. It seems to have worked all year, so I'm not sure why Maddon abandoned it in the playoffs. 

The Cubs finally made the guy throw some pitches in the fourth inning and lo and behold, the fifth inning was the best one the Cubs had versus Harvey. If they had maybe been a bit more patient earlier, maybe the 1 run fifth could have been more. 

Of course, sending Castro home against Cespedes' arm in left field did not help anything either. Castro admitted after the game that part of the problem was that he was not running full speed to third because he figured there was no way Gary Jones would send him. That out falls on Jones and ultimately hurt the Cubs as much as anything else in this game. 

The Cubs finally made it to Harvey's pitch count in the 8th inning. With two outs, Harvey threw his 97th pitch and Kyle Schwarbear hit the longest home run of this post season so far. Watch the StatCast homer right here and let's end on a happy note. 

Lester was not as bad as everyone acts like he was, but he could have been a little better. The Handsome Youngsters need to be more patient and it will all work out for the Cubs. One game is not a playoff series and Arrieta starts tonight.

That's your Reckless Recap. Go Cubs!

 

 

 

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