by Boutros Boutros Ghali

As the season winds down and the races heat up, you just want your team to do whatever it takes to win the game. Sometimes, that ends up making you feel slightly weird because things happen that make you wonder if your team is the good guy in this story or the bad guy. 

That happened yesterday in the Cubs game when Cobra Kai Coghlan went hard into Jung Ho Kang's leg to finish him for the season. This will ultimately help the Cubs and anyone else playing the Pirates, but it is terrible to see a guy get injured like that. 

Right now, it seems like the Cubs are the Johnny Lawrence of this season, but in reality, they are not. It was just an unfortunate accident. We discussed this on the new podcast out today on iTunes and at SonRanto.com. After watching the play multiple times, I don't think Coghlan had any ill will intended in his slide. 

Almost every double play that is turned in the MLB is done so with the 2nd baseman/short stop moving towards right field and out of the way of the runner who is sliding towards the outside of the bag to disrupt the throw. Most of the time, the fielder is able to move far enough out that the slide can not get to him. Other times, the fielder does a little hop as they throw to go over the runner or at least keep their legs from getting bent the wrong way. Unfortunately, Kang did neither of those very well and Cobra turned into Cobra Kai on the spot.

If you watch the video, (it may be upsetting to watch if you don't like watching injuries happen in slo mo) the ball is hit to the second baseman who throws it to Kang. Kang does not really utilize the "neighborhood" play. He stays on the bag until he has the ball and then steps off to make the throw so that gives him less time to get out of the way of Coghlan coming at him. Then, instead of continuing to move to his left and making the throw as he hops, Kang steps into the throw which plants his cleats in the dirt. When Coghlan hits him, the leg is trapped making what would be a normal play turn into a serious injury. In this case, a broken leg and a torn knee ligament.

This was an unfortunate result of a very normal play. The Pirates announcers themselves say the same thing. It's easy to paint Coghlan as a bad guy, but he was just doing what runners do. This time, it went badly.

If anyone says different, they are just being reactionary whiners. They are the same people who want to bring the DH to the National League based on one pitcher hurting himself leaving the batter's box. These plays happen multiple times every single game. Fifteen games a day for 162 days with two or more double plays happening in each one. That's between Five and Seven Thousand plays a season. ONE person got hurt. 

Now that I've had my rant against all the reactionary assholes that are trying to make Chris Coghlan out to be a bad guy (probably because it gets ratings and not because they believe it), I can move on to what was a very exciting game. 

Due to the length of this article already, I'm going to be much more limited in my recap. 

First off, Kyle Hendricks sucked. I'm the guy always pointing out that he pitches okay and keeps the Cubs in the games that he pitches. Usually, he does a good enough job and that turns into wins or losses based on how the entire team plays. Hendricks is not usually a guy that is going to straight out win the game for the Cubs. 

He can lose the game for them though, and Hendricks was well on his way to doing that when Maddon threw the well justified early hook. In three innings, Hendricks gave up three home runs. 

The Handsome Youngsters had already scored three runs in the first two innings, so the solo shot in the second was not a real concern. When Polanco hit a homer to lead off the third inning, the Cubs still had a one run lead. Then Hendricks allowed another homer in the third, this time two runs by Alvarez, and everyone knew it was not going to be Kyle's day. Cubs 3-Pirates 4 after 3 innings. 

The good thing is that the Cubs have a number of long men they can count on when any one of their three fifth starters has an off day. (This recap is not brought to you by Fifth/Third Bank despite the three fifth starters.) Trevor Cahill was good the other day and this time Clayton Richard was the guy. 

Richard went three strong innings on the mound before the Pirates got a second look at him and illustrated why this guy should not be allowed to pitch more than three innings. Luckily, the Handsome Youngsters, and Richard himself, had created enough of a cushion that they could withstand the two runs given up in the seventh inning. 

Those runs came in the fifth inning when 11 Cubs batters went to the plate. Coghlan started the inning with a double and then Rizzo sent the Cubs into the lead with a homer into right field. Plunk had to go down to get a low splitter to send his 30th home run of the season into the bleachers. Cubs 5-Pirates 4.

It was already a good inning, but the rest of the Handsome Youngsters were not done. After Bryant hit a single, Clint Hurdle pulled Morton to try and keep the game close. 

Blanton entered and should have had an out against Montero, but as we have seen in this series, the Pirates are bad on defense. Pedro Alvarez commits the error and the Cubs have two runners on and no outs. Addison Russell was up for the challenge and pushed across his second RBI of the day. 

Clayton Richard got the opportunity to bat, and screamed "Fuck the DH!" as he knocked a double into the left field gap to score Montero and Russell. Cubs now lead 8-4 and had still not recorded an out in the inning. LaStella kept the conga line going with a single to bring Richard in for the 6th run of the inning. 

That was it for Blanton and Bobby LaFrenchy was sent in to try to end the mess. Lala From Boise, ID, was able to get some grounders for outs and the fifth inning was finally over for the Cubs. Cubs 9-Bucs 4. 

In the seventh inning, Harrison and Polanco got to Richard for the first time. Maddon was quick on the hook hand and brought in Grimm. Grimm gave up a ground rule double that pulled the Pirates within three, but got the Cubs out of the inning. Cubs 9-Pirates 6. 

Travis Wood got the call and worked two innings to lock this game down with his second save of the year. He's starting to look like a pretty viable option in the late innings for the Cubs as they head for the playoffs. Cubs win 9-6. 

That's the Reckless Recap. The Cardinals are in Chicago for a three game set this weekend in what amounts to a bunch of rematches of the pitchers that saw each other last week. Let's hope we can get the same production this time around. 

Danny Rockett is continuing with his Cubs album and you can support it through the GoFundMe banner on SonRanto.com. Each dollar gives you one chance at winning a throwback Whales jersey and you will get to be listed as a producer. Plus, it makes Danny come up with great parody songs about the Cubs that will allow us to remember this magical 2015 season our whole lives. 

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