Examining the state of the Cubs at the All-Star break

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Rahimi & Grote Show 15 min 2 speakers 5 chapters transcribed 2 months ago

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How are the Cubs performing at the All‑Star break after their recent road trip?

Vinny Rotino 0:00

This is Rahimi Harrison-Grote on 104.3 The Score. We are happy to join you on this Monday. It is the Monday of the All-Star break. And I don't know about you, but I feel better about both the Cubs and the White Sox, especially after this weekend. Maybe if you go back two weeks ago, I think things are better. We want to know what you think as well. We'll take your calls in our 1045 segment. 312-644-6767 is our number. And as we are at the break and we expect Tuesday's Midsummer Classic to always be a celebration of baseball, it is a celebration of the talent that we have. We saw two more White Sox make the all-star game in the Home Run Derby. And I think we found out one of them in a graphic that was accidentally posted early on the south side of Munataka Murakami for the Home Run Derby.

Vinny Rotino 0:50

But either way, I can't help but feel better about this team, even though I know it's the Reds. We'll start with the Cubs, Marshall. But the Reds, having taken two of three in Cincinnati, after we've seen the Cubs drop series to their divisional opponents in the Cardinals, both at home and on the road, at least that was an additional step in the right direction. And you saw some signs out of people you needed to see them out of. Matt Boyd, with a strong start to that game, goes as long as he possibly can. to get you to the break. He eats innings for you. Then you see Alex Bregman producing back-to-back games that help clinch the series for them. So some signs of players you need to see stepping up in addition to the typical suspects like your Pete Crow Armstrongs.

Vinny Rotino 1:34

Helping this team in those details will win you more ballgames and theoretically more series.

Marshall Harris 1:40

The Cubs here in the middle of July, going into the break, did something that they couldn't do at the beginning of June when they faced 22 straight games against sub-500 competition. They beat up on the bad teams. The Cubs now 6-1 this season against the Reds. And the only game they lost, there was this dude, Hunter Green, you may have heard of him, doing what he does best.

Vinny Rotino 1:58

He throws well against the Cubs.

Marshall Harris 2:00

But if Hunter Green's not on the mound, the Cubs got the job done. It's a bottom line thing. Understand this. Even after taking two of three and finishing the first half of the season with a nice 4-2 road trip, that's the way you want to finish. Just keep winning series on the road because you're making up for lost time if you're going to catch the Brewers in the standings. The Cubs are in a situation right now where they are now 13-13 in their division. The Reds are 6-22, by the way. Everybody else has a winning record in the division. If you don't beat up on the Reds, you're losing ground because everybody else is beating up on the Reds. It was just nice to see more of, this is what the Cubs were probably supposed to look like at the beginning of the season.

Marshall Harris 2:39

Decent pitching, enough offense, and you get wins. That's what I saw, not only in the series, really on the six-game road trip, taking them through Baltimore and Cincinnati.

Vinny Rotino 2:49

Well, and you saw stretches, right? I'm still at the point where I need to see stretches out of players. Consistency out of hitters. Can you string together two quality starts in a row back-to-back if you're a guy like Matthew Boyd coming off of injury? And Boyd didn't get the quality start, but he came close. Six and a third innings, four runs. They were all earned. Only one walk and three strikeouts. But that six and a third seemed like an eternity in a game where it was warm in Cincinnati. You knew the hits were coming aplenty. Poor Matthew Boyd. I didn't know that after allowing four runs that he was going to be able to settle back down, and he did. He withstood that third inning that the Reds had where they put up the four spot.

Vinny Rotino 3:28

Cubs were able to give him offensive production. You know, he started out with two runs of support in the first inning, and then they add to it in the seventh inning. There were some opportunities for the Cubs where we saw some frustrating times where they had the bases loaded and couldn't get runners home.