Vinnie Duber talks Cubs' health woes, doubleheader sweep of Mets (Hour 2)
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What were the highlights of the Cubs' doubleheader sweep against the Mets?
Here comes the 2-2 delivery. Lindor lines one, caught on one knee, fittingly by Swanson. Ball game. Cubs sweep the double header as they take the night gap 10-5 over the Mets.
That is Zach Zaidman. He and Ron Coomer were on the call on the Cubs radio network. This is Rahimi Harrison-Grody on 104.3 The Score. And we are happy to go to our hotline. That is where we find Vinny Duber. He is at Vinny Duber on X. He is the Cubs beat writer for the Chicago Sun-Times. And I'm happy to have him back on the Midday Show. Vinny, congratulations on the new role. How are you?
Thank you very much, Layla. I'm doing great. How are you guys today?
We're good, but we're not the ones who had to cover 45 hours of baseball yesterday. That was quite the doubleheader you had to deal with.
Hey, that's baseball, right? Sometimes the days are long, but you'll take it, especially on a nice day. Finally, the rain went away here in New York.
It is baseball, and part of baseball is facing bad teams and good teams, and the Cubs have been very fortunate with the stretch of sub-500 teams to start the month of June before, of course, the looming series in Milwaukee. How do you feel like they've performed given the challenges that they've had with the pitching staff?
Yeah, I mean, very much like the story of the whole season, it's been kind of up and down during this stretch, right, during this month. I mean, it started off kind of poor. They lost series to, you know, the A's, to the Giants, to the Rockies, but then they kind of found their footing a little bit and they've won some series in a row here. Certainly the Mets are making them look really good the last few days, but that's what you got to do, right? You got to capitalize. on games against opponents who are in a real down spot like the Mets are right now. I mean, watching that game last night, six errors by the infield, I mean, you know that they're not in a good spot. But the Cubs got to take advantage, especially, like you mentioned, while the pitching is just ravaged by injuries right now.
So if the offense is turning it on for real, if this is a sign that they can, you know, play this way against teams that are of a little higher caliber, then that's pretty good news for them considering they need the offense to kind of carry them while they're waiting for all these pitchers to get healthy.
We're talking to Vinny Duber. He covers the Cubs for the Chicago Sun-Times. And Vinny, there was an observation made regarding Dansby Swanson that he had been working with John Maley, and they had had a pretty intent talk during the Rockies series and the Blue Jays series, going back to even prior to the Mets series. Do you think that this is an adjustment, or at least what we saw yesterday was the result of something that he may have been working on intently previous to this happening?
I mean, he's been working on stuff pretty intently for a long time now, right, the entire season. That really hasn't gone his way until quite recently. But he did credit the coaching staff yesterday for kind of, at the very least, creating an environment for him to be able to kind of figure out what was going on and kind of you know, rediscover what he was able to make him successful. And certainly the results are speaking for themselves. But I mean, I think through the entire stretch here where the Cubs bats kind of cooled off, you've got Dansby and a lot of other players saying that, you know, the work hasn't changed, but it's just nice to finally start seeing some results. And like I said, they really needed them.
And boy, did they kind of come in a big way, certainly yesterday and really the last week or so for Swanson.
Looking at the way that this has all transpired with the pitching being as down as it is, what can you tell us about Matthew Boyd today who's scheduled to get the start and if there's going to be any limitations on him?
Oh, we'll find out, I guess, in terms of limitations. I think, though, when you're talking about Boyd coming back and really any of the situation with these pitchers right now, and Craig Council was kind of talking about it in regard to Edward Cabrera, who then ended up, you know, kind of going on the I.L., it's about putting some of these starts together, right?
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What were the highlights of the Cubs' doubleheader sweep against the Mets?
0:00–6:15
2
How has the Cubs' pitching staff been affected by injuries?
6:15–11:35
3
What adjustments has Dansby Swanson made recently?
11:35–17:16
4
What can we expect from Matthew Boyd's return to the mound?
17:16–26:06
5
How will the Cubs' pitching plans be impacted by the upcoming series against the Brewers?
26:06–43:19
Speakers
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