Archive for August, 2016

How was your week?

Posted: August 5, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, sports, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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I, what most NBA experts saw as a surprise, saw Russell Westbrook sign a 3-year contract extension to stay with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Most if not all of the experts that cover the NBA expected Westbrrok to follow Kevin Durant out of Oklahoma City when his contract expired after the 2016-17 season. Even though Westbrook has a new deal there’s no guarantee that he’ll be with Oklahoma City long term. Westbrook’s new contract replaces the final year of the deal he was under. He’s also signed for the 2017-18 season and has a player option for the 2018-19 season. We see a lot of these player options in contracts now because of the escalating salary cap number. With the new contract Westbrrok gets a raise for the 2016-17 season. He was originally due to make $17,769.374 for this coming season, but under his new contract that salary jumps to $26.5 million. That will also be Westbrook’s salary for the 2017-18 season and it would also be that for the 2018-19 season if he doesn’t opt out of the contract.

Westbrook played in and started 80 games for the Thunder last season. He averages 34.4 minutes per game. He averaged 23.5 points per game, 10.4 assists per game and 7.8 rebounds per game. On average he took 18.1 shots per game, but with Durant now wearing a Golden State Warriors uniform look for that number to go up. Westbrook is a 5-time All-Star and has finished in the Top 12 of the league’s MVP voting in four of the last five seasons. With Durant gone  Oklahoma City is clearly Westbrook’s team and I expect him to take full advantage of that.  Westbrook is a triple-double waiting to happen and I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see him win the league MVP award in one of both of these next two seasons he’ll be under contract to the Thunder. RW’s Career Page

Oklahoma City is going to have a different look this season than in the past. Not only is Durant gone, but the Thunder traded Serge Ibaka to the Orlando Magic for Victor Oladipo, Ersan Ilyasova and Domantas Sabonis on draft night. Besides getting the #11 pick Sabonis in a trade with the Magic the Thunder also made a deal with the Denver Nuggets to acquire Daniel Hamilton the 56th pick in the draft. Oklahoma City was 55-27 and the 3rd seed in the Western Conference playoffs under 1st year coach Billy Donovan. The Thunder made it all the way to the Western Conference finals where they lost to Golden State in 7 games. Even in the tough Western Conference; the lost of Durant and the trading of Ibaka the Thunder should still be a playoff team. Can they get to the conference finals again? and if they did could they find a way to get past Golden State and into the NBA Finals?

New York Yankees 1st baseman Mark Teixeira announced this week that he’ll be retiring after the 2016 season. Teixeira is 36 years old and is in his 14th major league season. He currently has 404 career home runs and is one of just five switch hitters with 400 or more career home runs. Teixeira is a 3-time All-Star and a 5-time Gold Glove winner. His best season may have been his first one with the Yankees. He hit .292 while leading the league in home runs with 39 and RBI’s with 122. He finished 2nd in the MVP voting that season to Joe Mauer of the Minnesota Twins. Teixeira was the 5th overall pick of the 2001 draft by the Texas Rangers. He made his major league debut April 1st of the 2003 season. Injuries have really taken it’s toll on Teixeira the last 5 seasons. He hasn’t played in more than 123 games in any of those seasons and only played 15 games in 2013 due to injury. Besides the 404 career home runs Teixeira is a career .269 hitter and has driven in 1281 runs over his 14 seasons. Tex career stats While I don’t think Teixeira has the career numbers to get into the Hall of Fame he has been with the Yankees for 8 seasons and that can help a player in the voting.

Has anyone broken out as the National League MVP to you? Before Clayton Kershaw got injured it seemed as tough he was the front runner for the award even though he’s a pitcher and it’s a cop out to vote that way. There are some contenders, but I don’t think anyone has separated themselves from the field as of yet. Daniel Murphy is having a great season for the 1st place Washington Nationals. Murphy is leading the NL with a .356 average along with 21 home runs and 81 RBI’s. With Bryce Harper having what is considered a down year Murphy has been a huge piece for the Nationals. What about Carlos Gonzalez of the Colorado Rockies? Gonzalez has good numbers this season with 23 home runs, 75 RBI’s and is hitting 320. Will there be questions about his numbers because he plays in Colorado. What may hurt Gonzalez more than anything is that it doesn’t look like the Rockies will be a playoff team. Colorado is 8 games out of the NL West lead and trail by 4 games in the wild card race. It may seem odd to talk about the standings when your looking at the MVP race, but they actual matter to the people who vote for the award. Could Corey Seager of the Los Angeles Dodgers be a surprise candidate. Seager is the front runner for NL Rookie of the Year, but with his .303 batting average, 19 home runs and 51 RBI’s could MVP also be included. Seager also plays shortstop and he plays shortstop for the Dodgers. With the injury to Kershaw and some of the other issues the Dodgers have dealt with Seager may get some consideration for MVP. Don’t forget Kris Bryant of the Chicago Cubs. Someone on the Cubs is going to get MVP votes with the year the team is having and Bryant may be the guy. He’s currently 2nd in the NL with 26 home runs; just one behind the league lead. He has also driven in 68 runs and is hitting .284 this season. It should also be taken into consideration that Bryant has played multiple position for the best team in the NL. Bryant has played most of his games at 3rd (68 games), but has played the outfield in 57 games. He has also played 5 games at 1st base; he DH’d in 1 game and even played an inning at shortstop this season. With Kershaw out of the running for this award could the cowards that can’t make a decision on an everyday player run and hide behind another pitcher. Is there a chance they turn to another Nationls player and get behind Steven Strasburg. Strasburg is 15-1 with an ERA of 2.63 in 20 starts this season. He’s struck out 161 batters this season while walking 38 guys. He has given up 13 home runs and teams are hitting .194 against him this season. Are one of these five players the NL MVP? or is these someone else out there? If you had a ballot; who do you have a top of it?

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When the official MLB Scorer got it wrong!

Posted: August 4, 2016 by Daniel Kupres in baseball, Sports Time Radio, Uncategorized
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When it comes to scoring in the MLB it can be very confusing especially to someone new to the sport.  If there is anything, I am so confident in knowing, is how to score a baseball game.  This isn’t something that I googled to understand, I learned how the art of scoring back when I was 9 years old which I hate to admit was almost 30 years ago.  As a kid, my dad worked nights and my mom worked days and with day baseball being a Cubs thing, and my favorite cartoons being on WGN, they were preempted for the Cubs.  We also did not have cable.  During the summer I watched just about every Cubs game.  I was also fortunate enough to receive the superstation TBS, which carried Braves games and a station out of New York that carried the Mets.  Oddly I couldn’t tell you which channel the White Sox were on as I never watched them.

Watching game after game after game and reading the newspaper and the one score card from my first Cubs game, I learned to keep score for baseball.  I made my dad make hundreds of copies of my one score card and from there on I kept score of every game I watched.  To be honest, I wish I still had these packed away in a box in my parents basement.  I literally kept score of every game including the entire World Series starting with the Battle in the Bay, the Oakland Athletics vs the San Francisco Giamts combining with the Braves domination in the 90’s.  It was so important and fun to me I even recorded the games on VHS, when I knew I would miss a game because I had a baseball game.

This to me is an art as not everyone understands the rules of scoring and I would say my level is close to expert, as I would be an expert if I worked for Major League Baseball.  So needless to say it really irritates me when the “Pros” get the call wrong, like in  the Cubs/Mariners game on Sunday, July 31st.  Jon Lester place a perfect bunt that went back to the pitcher but was just out of reach causing the pitcher to scoop it up with his glove and for the toss home with Jason Heyward scoring in walk-off fashion.  With today’s replay reviews, Lester had to run it out and reach first base which he did.

Another instance takes us back to June 6, 2016 with the Cubs in Philadelphia.  In the fifth inning Matt Szczur would pinch hit for Jorge Soler, laying down a bunt in almost the same exact fashion as Lester on July 31st that scores Kris Bryant.  There is no play on Szczur and he reaches first base without a challenge.  When I heard the Cubs broadcast team give the official scoring of the play, I fell out of my seat and immediately tweeted them.

But of course, I did not receive a tweet back, either telling me I’m right or even wrong.  I think what really gets me, these are the pros.  I can’t be mad at them because well if you click the links above to both games where the non sacrifice happened, the official scorer got it wrong and did not correct it.  Now of course you’re saying, is your head that big that you can’t be wrong?  Well I’m prepared to answer that with the actual MLB rule.  

Rule 9.08 Sacrifices 


I know not everyone truly understands legal talk so here goes.  The official scorer has freedom to interpret the rule as they would call for.  However, when it comes to sacrifice bunts it clearly states that before two outs, if a bunt is put into play and the runners, already on base, advance to the next base and no effort was put into throwing the batter out at first base, then the batter shall be credited with a one-base hit.  

In both cases that I brought forward, that is the situation.  Both batters Matt Szczur and Jon Lester laid down bunts that went back to the pitcher.  In both situations not only did the runners advance to the next base, the batter reached first base without so much as an attempt to throw the batter out at first.  Both times, the play was scored as a sacrifice bunt, when it clearly was a single as sacrifice bunt.  The whole idea behind a sacrifice is giving something up.  In baseball, an out is what’s given up, hence the need for MLB Rule 9.08 Sacrifices.  

Am I looking to deep into it?  Am I too big of a baseball nerd? Whatever you think is up to you but I can say I love this game.  Like I said earlier, I may not be an “expert” but when it comes to baseball I do consider myself an expert.  

Dan the Man

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Wild Walk Off!

Posted: August 3, 2016 by Daniel Kupres in baseball, fantasy, post season, sports, Sports Time Radio
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The series finale between the Cubs and Marlins has John Lackey looking for just his ninth win of the season.  He is looking to start this month off on a positive note as he takes on Tom Koehler who also seeks his ninth win of the season.

Lackey starts off the game giving a leadoff single to Dee Gordon who snags his eighth stolen base of the year and then scores on Chritian Yelich’s double to left field.  Through the next six innings, Lackey only allows three singles and is looking very sharp.  He starts the seventh inning off with a strikeout for the first out but hits Derek Dietrich who takes first base.  Jeff Mathis would step into the box and takes a two-seam fastball and launches to left center field for a home run giving the Marlins the lead.  Lackey does allow another hit but gets out of the inning.  Through seven innings, Lackey gives up seven hits, no walks and strikes out eight but does give up three earned runs.

Tom Koehler through five innings would only allow one walk and three hits with no runners scoring.  it wouldn’t be until the sixth inning that he gives up a single to Anthony Rizzo to right.  Rizzo advances to second on Koehler’s wild pitch and then to third on a ground out by Ben Zobrist.  Wilson Contreras drives in Rizzo with a ground ball to center field.

Kyle Barraclough enters in the bottom of the seventh for a 1-2-3 inning.  Joe Smith makes his debut for the Cubs in the top of the eighth getting the first out but gives up a solo home run to Christian Yelich putting the Marlins up 4-1.  Smith gets the second out but gives up back to back singles prompting Joel Maddon to bring in Carl Edwards Jr. to end the inning.  For the bottom half former Cub, Fernando Rodney steps to the mound giving up back to back singles to Dexter Fowler and Kris Bryant.  With Fowler on third and Rizzo at the plate, Rodney throws a wild pitch allowing Fowler to score the Cubs second run of the game.  Rizzo would walk and Zo would advance both runners with a sac bunt.  Wilson strikes out and with two outs and two men on, Jason Heyward grounds out to shortstop to end the inning.

Justin Grimm enters the game in the top of the ninth.  He gets the first two outs but gives up an infield groundball hit to Dee Gordon who is 3 – 3 on the day all infield hits.   He then walks Martin Prado with two outs.  With Christian Yelich at the plate both runners advance on a wild pitch by Grimm but he gets Yelich to go down swinging.

A.J. Ramos takes over for the Marlins in the top of the ninth giving up a lead off double to Miguel Montero who is pushed over to third as Javier Baez singles to left.  Ramos then loads the bases walking Matt Szczur.  Dexter Fowler sends a fly ball to Stanton for an out but advances all three batters to put the Cubs down by one.  One out, Kris Bryant at the plate gets called out on strikes.  What could be the last chance for the Cubs, Rizzo steps in the box to receive the intentional walk to load the bases for Ben Zobrist who takes five pitches to draw the walk to tie the game at four for Wilson Contreras who takes the first pitch for a strike.  The 0 and 1 is wild, Szczur scores, Cubs Win! CUBS WIN!

Go Cubs Go!

Dan the Man

The Podcast now on Tunein.com, Download the app today and follow us or Apple users can download us in the Podcast app today!

Let’s Call it Wednesday

Posted: August 3, 2016 by Sports Time Radio in Auto Racing, baseball, NASCAR, sports, Uncategorized
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Baseball’s non-waiver trade deadline ended Monday afternoon and there where a lot of players that ended up changing teams. Now I’m not going to try and breakdown every trade that happen, but I want t talk about the way the trade deadline was rated. As you know by now they either rate a team as a trade deadline winner or losers. The one team that everyone seemed to continue to jump on and make sure everyone knew they lost at the trade deadline was the Chicago White Sox. Now the White Sox did trade set up man Zach Duke to the St. Louis Cardinals for minor league outfielder Charlie Tilson. This deal was not enough for the experts or anyone breaking down the trade deadline moves and the White Sox got the brunt of it.

The reason the White Sox where being considered the biggest loser at the trade deadline is the fact that they didn’t trade starting pitcher Chris Sale. This of course is just a huge joke. Sale is one of the top pitchers in baseball and to trade him you’d have to get quite a bit in return. There’s no way the White Sox should’ve traded Sale anywhere unless they could’ve gotten 5 prospects Double-A or higher who are major league ready. Now you’re really limiting which teams you can deal with by handling it that way, but you have to get value if you’re going to move a talent like Sale. So the White Sox couldn’t get a deal done for Sale and I don’t know why it’s such a bad thing for them to hold on to him.

The White Sox are 51-55 and find themselves 10 games behind the Cleveland Indians in the AL Central. They are 7 1/2 games out of a wild card spot, but they have 5 teams they’d need to jump to get one of those spots. It’s starting to look like the White Sox will not be a playoff team; so it’s a viable option to deal Sale, but if and only if your asking price is met. Sake is just 27 years old. He is 14-4 with an ERA of 3.17 in 20 starts. He has 3 complete games this season with 1 of them being a shutout. He has placed in the Top 6 of the Cy Young voting the last 5 seasons and he’s sure to end up there again. He led the American League in strikeouts last season and is currently 2nd this season with 133 strikeouts. So Sale is the best player on the White Sox and would easily bring the most in return if traded, but since the White Sox didn’t trade him they’re losers.

How about a team that is 10 games under .500 at 48-58. They’re 13 1/2 games out in their division and 10 games out of a wild card spot. Now this team didn’t trade it’s best player and they could’ve gotten a lot in return for him maybe even more than the White Sox would’ve gotten for Sale, but I didn’t hear this team lambasted like the White Sox where and put into the loser bracket. Why did no one jump up and down on the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for not trading Mike Trout? Aren’t the Angels farther away from competing than the White Sox are and couldn’t a rebuild really get started by dealing Trout for a boat load of prospects. Let’s keep looking for another team.

How about the 43-64 Arizona Diamondbacks. They are probably the most disappointing team in baseball this season. Now they paid big, big money for Zack Greinke in the off season and they also have Paul Goldschmidt on their team. Even though the Diamondbacks are going nowhere this season Greinke and Goldschmidt are still both with the Diamondbacks. It was just laughable that the White Sox where expected to move Sale, but these other under performing teams aren’t expected to move their best players to fix there teams. Are these guys just upset because Sale had that clubhouse freak out and cut up those throw back uniforms and that’s why he has to be moved. Either that or they where secretly rooting for Sale to be dealt to a team they want to see win and he could be the piece that puts them over the top. Anyway the guys breaking down the trade deadline where way, way out of line putting the White Sox where they did and expecting them to just more or less give away a top pitcher in baseball. Stupidity just plain and simple stupidity.

On Sunday the NASCAR race was postponed do to weather and moved to Monday. There where just 21 laps left when the Monday race had to be red flagged because of fog with rookie Chris Buescher in the lead. Buescher had to wait 80 minutes as the NASCAR officials decided what to do. With threats of severe weather and no lifting of the fog, NASCAR decided to end the race and Buescher had his very 1st Sprint Cup victory. Buescher along with 3rd place finisher Regan Smith hadn’t made their final pit stops when the caution flag came out for that fog at lap 132.  The drivers stayed on the track under caution for 7 laps as NASCAR decided to throw the red flag at lap 139. While there was some rain in the area the majority of the drivers pitted either because they needed fuel or because they thought the race would go longer. No one could predict the fog rolling in and ending the race. Buescher became the first rookie to win a Sprint Cup race since Joey Logano did it in 2009. What can be considered an odd win for Buescher had to use an odd Victory Lane. They moved Victory Lane into the garage since NASCAR couldn’t use the real Victory Lane because of the threat of lightning. While Buescher did get the win he hasn’t yet qualified for The Chase for the Sprint Cup. Buescher sits six points behind 30th-place David Ragan in the Sprint Cup standings. A driver has to be in the top 30 to qualify for the Chase via a race victory. Buescher has 5 races to make up those 6 points and get himself into the Top 30 in points and qualify for The Chase. NASCAR Schedule

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Marlins game 2

Posted: August 2, 2016 by Daniel Kupres in baseball, fantasy, Minor League Baseball, post season, sports, Sports Time Radio
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Jason Hammel is hopefully eating a ton of potato chips for this game as it should be a hot one and he needs to retain as much as H2O as possible.  He went 3-2 in the month of July and looks to take his win streak to 4 games with the possibility of a career high 11th win.  He is taking on Jose Fernandez looking for lucky number 13 in his second career start against the Cubs.  He went seven innings giving up only one run on four hits, but strikes out 13 giving Hammel his fourth loss of the year.

Hammel doesn’t start off too smoothly as he walks the bases loaded with two outs to start the game but on the sixth batter he gets out of the inning.  Fernandez tosses one up for Fowler allowing him to bag a triple his fourth of the year.  Wilson Contreras derives him in with a single to shortstop.  After Rizzo strikes out and Ben Zobrist ends the inning grounding into a double play. 

Addison Russell singles in the second but no one scores in the second.  In the bottom of the third, Dexter Fowler leads off with a single and steals second with Contreras at the plate and makes it to third on Wilson’s line drive to left.  Fowler scores again as Anthony Rizzo flies out to left.  Wilson would try to take second base but is thrown out ending the inning.  Cubs up by two.  

Chris Coghlan leads off the fifth with a ground ball single to center.  Fernandez gives him second base as he balks.  He gets the next two outs but it would Fowler who steps in the box and drives in his first run of the game with a single to right.  Contreras and Rizzo both walk but Zo strikes out to end the inning.  

After Hammels rocky start to the game, he would only allow three more base runners through the top of the sixth.  He would strike out three walking two with four hits as Maddon brings in Pedro Strop in the top of the seventh.  He gives up a single to Derek Dietrich who ends up at third as Chris Johnson sends a ground ball back to Strop who throws it away as he try’s to get Derek out at second.  Adeiny Hechavarria sends a ground ball to left scoring Derek.  J.T. Realmuto sends a grounder to right scoring Johnson putting the Marlins within one run.  Strop strikes out Martin Prado but that would be enough for  Maddon to take the trip to the mound bringing in Travis Wood to end the inning.  

Kyle Barraclough replaces Fernandez in the seventh only allowing one base runner.  Hector Rondon joins the game in the bottom of the eighth striking out Giancarlo Stanton.  Marcell Ozuna sends a line drive to right but gets picked off for the second out of the inning.  Rondon gives up a single to Dietrich but ends the inning when Johnson lines out to left.  

Mike Dunn enters the game in the bottom of the eighth getting the first two outs but Matt Szczur breaks it up by singling but Javier Baez goes down swinging.  

Maddon of course brings in Aroldis Chapman to close out the game.  He gets Hechavarria to ground out for the first out.  Then he strikes out Jeff Mathis.  J.T. Realmuto ends the game by grounding to third giving him second save for the Cubs.  

Go Cubs Go!

Dan the Man

The Podcast now on Tunein.com, Download the app today and follow us or Apple users can download us in the Podcast app today!

Cubs Hook The Marlins

Posted: August 2, 2016 by Daniel Kupres in baseball, Minor League Baseball, post season, sports, Sports Time Radio
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The second series of the season for the Marlins and the Cubs and Adam Conley in his first start this season in Wrigley Field.  Kyle Hendricks searching for his 10th win of the season puts together his best start since May 28th against the Phillies.

Kyle pitches a complete game, his second of the year since the start against the Phils.  Kyle gives up seven hits but only walks three.  He strikes out five batters and it’s a start that the Cubs definitely needed to give the bullpen a much needed rest.

Adam Conley would not be on like Kyle.  He starts the game by walking Dexter Fowler but gets Kris Bryant to flyout.  Anthony Rizzo launches his 30th double of the year pushing Fowler to third.  With two outs, Addison Russell sends a line drive to right scoring both runners.  Jason Heyward singles and Conley loads the bases by walking Contreras but gets out the inning by striking out Matt Szczur.  The Cubs are up by two.

Conley wouldn’t allow another run through four innings but Donny Baseball decides to pull him after four and brings in Dustin McGowan for the fifth.  He gets the first out but walks Contreras and gives up a single to Matt Szczur.  Kyle Hendricks helps himself out by driving in Contreras for the third run with Szczur landing at third.  Dexter Fowler adds another run by sending a fly ball to center scored as a sacrifice.

Anthony Rizzo leads off the bottom of the sixth with a monstrous triple to right and scores on Javier Baez’s sac fly to left credited to Marlins reliever Dustin McGowan.  The Cubs would add a few more hits over the next couple of innings but they wouldn’t need to come out in the bottom of the ninth after Kyle Hendricks finishes them off.

Go Cubs Go!

Dan the Man

The Podcast now on Tunein.com, Download the app today and follow us or Apple users can download us in the Podcast app today!

Mothership Walk Off Win!

Posted: August 1, 2016 by Daniel Kupres in baseball, fantasy, post season, sports, Sports Time Radio
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Brian Matusz (MATT-iss) is getting his first start of the year and for the Cubs since getting traded to Chicago in May.  On the other side of the diamond, getting his first start at Wrigley Field, “The King” Felix Hernandez who was activated from the disabled list eleven days ago.

Brian starts the game off with a leadoff single to Shawn O’Malley then a wild pitch puts Shawn at second bases and would make it to third on Leonys Martin’s sac bunt.  Shawn wouldn’t need the help to third as Nelson Cruz would drive him home with his 26th home run of the year.  Matusz would load the bases by hitting Kykes Seagar and walking the next two batters but does get the third out in the first.  

Brian gets the first two outs of the second but then gives up a single to Leonys Martin.  In the first, Robinson Cano strikes out but this at bat he drives in his 23rd home run of the season to put the M’s up by 4.  To continue into the third, Brian would give up a one out single and yet again gives up a two run home run this time to Dae-Ho Lee.  The Mariners are now up by 6.  That would be enough for Maddon as in the top the fourth Carl Edwards, Jr enters the game striking out the side.  

The King wouldn’t start off as easy walking Dexter Fowler and Kris Bryant but ends up striking out the rest of the Cubs lineup.  Felix would give up his first hit in the top of the fourth to Bem Zobrist but no one would score.  

Edwards would have a quick top of the fifth 1-2-3 but not so easy for The King.  Chris Coghlan leads off with a walk but is out at second as Miguel Montero forces him out.  Felix then loads the bases giving up a single to Fowler and walking Bryant.  With two outs, Zobrist gets an RBI walk.  The second run of the game happens as Felix hits Addiosn Russell but Heyward strikes out to end the inning.  

Joe Nathan enters the game in the walking Dae-Ho Lee and gives up a double to Mike Zunino.  Maddon takes the trip to the mound bringing in Travis Wood who loads the bases by walking Seth Smith.  He however gets the next here batters out to end the top of the sixth.  

Five innings, two runs on two hits would be enough for Felix as Drew Storen enters the game in the bottom of the sixth making it a quick inning.  

Pedro Strop joins the game in the top of the seventh but oddly Maddon has Wood take left field.  Strop only gives up one hit to Seagar but makes it out of top half with out adding a run.  Tom Wilhelmsen steps to the mound to give a leadoff walk to Fowler.  He would them score as Zo sends a line drive to center for his first triple of the year.  Edwin Diaz enters the game to strike out Russell.  

Strop starts the eighth by giving up a double to Zunino who is thrown out by Rizzo trying to reach third on Edwin Diaz’s ground ball.  Diaz is then forced out on O’Malley’s grounder to second.  Travis Wood comes back to the mound while Matt Szczur takes left field.  Wood then ends the inning picking off O’Malley.  

Mike Montogmery enters the game for the top of the ninth.  He gets the first two outs but gives up back to back singles to Nelson Cruz and Kyle Seagar but gets out of the inning.  Steve Cishek is brought in to close out the game for the M’s and give the King a win and starts off striking out Bryant.  Rizzo would launch a double to right, his 29th of the year.  Zo bumps him up to third with a single and Russell would bring him home with single of his own to left.  Cishek them loads the bases by hitting Jason Heyward.  With one out Wilson Contreras sends a ground ball to Seagar at third, he throws to Cano to start the double play but Cano’s throw to first is late.  The Mariners challenge but the call stands and Cubs score a run to put them down by one.  Cishek ties the game up for the Cubs with a wild pitch that scores Russell.  Matt Szcuzr’s flyout sends into extra innings.  

For the tenth inning, Aroldis Chapman retires all three batters.  Hector Rondon takes the eleventh and twelfth innings retiring all six batters.  Cody Martin finishes the game for the Mariners retiring the first six batters but starts the twelfth giving a leadoff double to Jason Heyward.  He advances to third on Contreras’s flyout to center.  With one out, Maddon decides to have Jon Lester pinch hit for Rondon.  It pays off as Lesters looks to be swinging away but at the last moment drops a bunt to the first base side, soft enough that Cishek only has time to scoop it up and toss it with his glove but it’s not in time as Heyward scores in late night walk off fashion.  

Go Cubs Go!

Dan the Man

The Podcast now on Tunein.com, Download the app today and follow us or Apple users can download us in the Podcast app today!

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