{"id":46888,"date":"2017-10-11T07:34:07","date_gmt":"2017-10-11T07:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=46888"},"modified":"2017-10-11T07:34:07","modified_gmt":"2017-10-11T07:34:07","slug":"cubs-convey-success-nationals-still-flounder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/sports\/cubs-convey-success-nationals-still-flounder.html","title":{"rendered":"While the Cubs Convey Success, the Nationals Still Flounder"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the Cubs Convey Success, the Nationals Still Flounder<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

While the Cubs Convey Success, the Nationals Still Flounder:- When rain postponed the fourth game of this National League division series on Tuesday, it seemed like a victory, of sorts, for the Washington Nationals. Instead of using their fourth starter, Tanner Roark, against the imposing Chicago Cubs, they could use an ace, Stephen Strasburg, on his usual four days\u2019 rest.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet for the Nationals, nothing comes easily at this time of year. The Cubs have completely remade their identity, overcoming their dubious postseason history last November by winning the World Series for the first time in 108 years. Now, it seems, the Nationals have replaced them as masters of the fall follies.<\/span><\/p>\n

With the Nationals facing first-round elimination for the fourth time in six seasons, they cannot turn to Strasburg, after all. On Wednesday afternoon, it still will be Roark, who had a 4.67 E.R.A. this season, against the confident Cubs. Nationals Manager Dusty Baker said that Strasburg, who fired seven strong innings in Game 1 of this series, was not feeling well.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of my team is under the weather with the change of weather and the air conditioning in the hotel and the air conditioning here,\u201d Baker said. \u201cIt\u2019s just this time of the year for mold around Chicago \u2014 I think it\u2019s mold. I mean, I have it, too.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Baker initially said that Strasburg had thrown in the bullpen on Tuesday to prepare for his start in a potential Game 5, which would take place Thursday in Washington. The team later amended that statement, revealing that Strasburg had actually thrown in the bullpen on Monday.<\/span><\/p>\n

In any case, Strasburg, who has always relied on a strict routine and was shut down before the 2012 playoffs because of a predetermined innings limit after he underwent Tommy John surgery, will not be available for Game 4.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fine,\u201d Baker said. \u201cWe have full confidence in Tanner.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And the Cubs have reason to believe in their starter: Jake Arrieta, a former Cy Young Award winner who skipped his last start of the regular season to rest a hamstring injury. Lately, Arrieta has been dominant: He has a 2.28 E.R.A. since the All-Star Game break.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been able to throw a few really quality sides \u2014 timing is really good, the stuff is good,\u201d Arrieta said. \u201cSo the arm strength hasn\u2019t been affected, and if there\u2019s any effect there, I think it\u2019s in a positive way, just kind of giving it a breather, not throwing for a few days, and obviously the hamstring, benefited from that, as well. So I think it could have been a blessing in disguise for us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The way things have gone for the Cubs lately, that would only be fitting. Last year, Cleveland had home-field advantage for the World Series, but it ultimately helped the Cubs because Kyle Schwarber \u2014 a lumbering slugger coming back from a knee injury \u2014 had an extra game to be their designated hitter. The Cubs won three of the four games in Cleveland.<\/span><\/p>\n

In left field on Monday, Schwarber dropped \u2014 and then kicked \u2014 a Daniel Murphy fly ball in the sixth inning to set up the Nationals\u2019 first run. The Cubs simply shrugged it off; they had no hits at the time off Max Scherzer but went on to win, 2-1.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no panic in the dugout,\u201d said the Cubs\u2019 Ben Zobrist. \u201cThere was no thought that it wasn\u2019t going to happen. It was just: when is it going to happen? When you make mistakes, the mantra as a team is just, \u2018So what?\u2019 \u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Cubs went 92-70 this season, an 11-game drop from last year, and five games worse than their record in 2015. But the playoffs reset everything, and the Cubs look well prepared.<\/span><\/p>\n

No team has won consecutive World Series titles since the Yankees of 1998 through 2000, making this the longest stretch in major league history without a repeat champion. The Cubs\u2019 president of baseball operations, Theo Epstein, said this spring that the biggest challenge for a defending champion is overcoming the physical toll on its pitchers from the previous postseason.<\/span><\/p>\n

But like the Los Angeles Dodgers \u2014 who will face the winner of this series in the N.L.C.S. \u2014 the Cubs did not have a single starter among the top 20 in innings pitched this year. That could help their rotation handle the rigors of October better than most. The Cubs starter with the most innings \u2014 Jose Quintana, with 188\u2154 \u2014 arrived from the White Sox in a trade for four prospects on July 13, more than two weeks before the non-waiver deadline.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe was going to have a lot of suitors, did have a lot of suitors at that point,\u201d said Cubs Manager Joe Maddon. \u201cOur guys did a great job of jumping the gun there a little bit and getting him, because he\u2019s been really exceptionally important to us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Quintana gave the Cubs a proven starter who did not have to grind through the last postseason and who is under team control through 2020. He went 7-3 with a 3.74 E.R.A. for the Cubs, then held Washington to an unearned run over five and two-thirds innings in Game 3.<\/span><\/p>\n

Starters have a ghastly 8.53 E.R.A. in this postseason, but the Cubs\u2019 trio of Kyle Hendricks, Jon Lester and Quintana has allowed one earned run in 18 2\/3 innings for a 0.48 E.R.A. \u2014 and an average of more than six innings per start.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf your starter can get you six, seven innings into a game, it takes a lot off your bullpen,\u201d said Hendricks, adding later: \u201cIn this day and age, we\u2019re lucky to have the rotation we have and rely on that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Nationals boast a strong and durable rotation, too. But when the baseball gods dropped a gift in their laps on Tuesday, it squirted through their hands and shattered on the ground. The Cubs once played that hapless role, but not anymore. They expect the best in October \u2014 and play like it, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/10\/10\/sports\/baseball\/chicago-cubs-washington-nationals-strasburg.html<\/span><\/p>\n

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