Faithful, Too: “Game 62W and…TRUMP 2028?”

Do I have your attention?

This is what flashed before my eyes upon starting the Cubs rubber match (the deciding game of a tied series) against the home team Nationals. The words and year were in blazing, bold white, stitched upon a red hat worn by an older gentleman with sunglasses, who was sitting right behind home plate and in full view on the TV throughout the entire game. It was Pride Night at Nationals Park, and I’m not saying that he wore the hat in a form of protest, but I’m not not saying that he wore the hat in a form of protest.

I hope he enjoyed what he saw. I sure did. The Cubs won 7-1.

They were up 3-0 quick after we got back from dinner. Decided to queue it up at the start so I could see Tucker hit a double (officially welcome back, Tuck) and PCA crush a 400-plus-foot homer to center. Lovely. Then we I went live on the telly, it was the top of the 6th and Happy immediately hit a two-run homer to right. Crushed it. It recalled the homer-happy Happ of years’ past. Thursday night was unquestionably Happ’s best offensive night since the wild and wacky 13-11 victory against the Dbacks a couple months ago. Last night he had three hits (including a double and that homer), scored once and knocked in four. If he can start playing like this 25% more of the time, the Cubs will really be on to something.

More fun facts from invaluable Cubs beat writer Meghan Montemurro’s Blue Sky account:

• “Cubs pitchers combined for just 1 strikeout tonight in the 7-1 win over the Nationals to take the series. It’s [the] fewest total strikeouts by Cubs pitchers since May 25, 2017 when Eddie Butler recorded [the] lone K.”
• “Colin Rea is the first Cubs pitcher since Jamie Moyer in 1986 with at least 5.1 shutout innings and no strikeouts.”

As for Mr. Rea, after struggling mightily in his past two starts, Counsell decided to let Pomeranz have another one-inning start. It led to a great Ben Brown outing over the weekend, and Rea, too, seemed calmed and relaxed. He gave up five hits and a walk, but, most importantly, zero runs (side note: Pomeranz and Flexen have pitched a combined 29 innings and given up zero earned runs. Zero. Invaluable to have in your bullpen. What a pick-up both of these guys have been).

Pressly closed out the game in a non-save situation and it’s time to have a positive discussion about him. After pitching one of the worst games of all time against the Giants last month (8 earned runs and zero outs), he has come back from a nagging injury and been rock solid:

• 11 games
• 10 innings
• 8 strikeouts
• 9 hits
• 3 walks
• Zero earned runs

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. If you actually take out that one awful Giants game, his ERA plummets from 4.30 to 1.17. Keep it up, Ryan.

Off to Detroit for a battle of the best of their respective Leagues. Let’s go…