JFC. Just saw the lineup. Maddon back to ****ing Zobrist at cleanup and pushing Bryant and Rizzo higher in the lineup in front of the OBP hitter Zobrist.

I'm slowly getting over Maddon's egotistical "I'll prove everyone wrong" managerial style.

Of course Lackey takes all of 1 batter to give up his first HR of the day.

Kris Bryant with his 12 HR of the year, 11 of which have been solo HRs. Thanks for continuing to bat him 2nd, Joe.

He's LaRussa in 1,000 different ways. He's a slightly more gregarious version of him, but at their cores they're roughly the same guy.

And just as Cubs fans hated LaRussa, i've come to really ****ing hate moping Joe Maddon. Is there anything that guy can't complain about? Dude's a stubborn baby.

That's the thing I hate about Joe. I can't stand anyone with the "The whole world's out to get me" bullshit attitude.

Bad defense strikes again

Bases loaded. Is it too late to re-sign Broxton?

What happened with Diaz? Grichuk syndrome?

Nah - pitchers are just refusing to throw him strikes and he's refusing to not swing anyway.

The league adjusted and he didn't adjust back so he's making a TON of weak contact. He's such a dead red fastball hitter (especially pitches up on the zone) that teams aren't giving him what he wants and he's reluctant to look for anything else.

He's still as good as anyone out there at getting on top of high heaters and hitting them hard but he's not getting those anymore and even when he does it's when he's in a pitchers count so he's not staying aggressive enough to hurt them.

He's in a bad way right now, for sure.

Maddon just got outmanaged by Matheny.

I know Schwarber's a mess but it's still good to get a big power bat out of the lineup in a tie game. And then Maddon burned his best RH pinch hitter as well.

All so he could get a matchup that I loved before the first pitch was even thrown. I know how often Jay rolls that pitch over to 2b and as soon as he was announced against Bowman, I figured we were in good shape there. Molina knows how to pitch him and Bowman has the stuff to make it work. He just kept popping that inside part of the plate knowing full well that Jay was going to roll it to 2b.

Very good managing by Matheny and great execution of a gameplan by Molina and Bowman.

Schwarber needs to be in Iowa. If he's getting pinch hit for with the bases loaded then he has no right to be in the majors right now. Maddon has misused him all year.

There's a lot of truth to that.

He obviously ain't on the field for his glove. So if he can't even be counted on to lift a fly ball against a lefty in a tie game, what the hell good is he?

And as you've noted, Maddon's decision to make him the leadoff hitter has just wrecked him. Perhaps there was a likely sophomore slump in the making anyway (it's effectively his 2nd year in the majors), but I can't imagine being asked to completely change his approach helped either.

Marp is absolutely lost at the plate right now.

I had no idea his average had dipped so low.

Any chance we trade him to Atlanta for Adams? :shake:

Thank you Carpenter and Molina. Saved that inning for the Cubs.

He said he's trying to change his approach for more power. I don't think it's working out well.