So many questions
The Cubs have a week to get their shit together. Let's not hold our breath.
The Cubs still have quite a bit of work to do this week. Work that should have mostly been taken care of if they had bothered to give a shit about any of the four games they blew in Cincinnati over the weekend. They still need to win a few games to secure home field for the wild card series against the Padres, and that's kind of important for two reasons.
- They have a much better chance of beating the Padres at home (some) than they do in San Diego's giant cat box of a ballpark (none.)
- Not only will Tom Ricketts use the loss of revenue if the games aren't at Wrigley as an excuse to not try to keep Kyle Tucker, he'll eventually use it as a reason to trade Petecrow back to the Mets for Manny Alexander and Lance Johnson.
The margin is pretty thin, considering that the four game sweep against the Reds has dropped the Cubs lead over the Padres to just 2.5 games, and it's unlikely that the Cubs can overcome the two game deficit in the tiebreaker (record against teams in your own division) they currently face.
But even beyond where they'll play those playoff games, the Cubs need to make some pretty big decisions this week.
Is Kyle Tucker going to be ambulatory enough to even play?
The reality of this situation is that even if he's able to run to some degree there's no reason to bother playing him in right field in the wild card round. The DH is there for a reason. I don't really care if he can't break into a brisk trot, he's in the lineup batting second, even if they have to tape a fungo bat to his leg as a crutch.
We know who pitches games one and two. What if there's a game three?
The Cubs will certainly start Cade Horton and Shōta Imanaga in games one and two in some order. (I think my order is the correct one.) But that leaves a big question mark should the Cubs actually win one of those games. Who starts game three?
