The Rundown: Cubs Hoping Rest Resets Offense, Horton Tossing Baskets of Goose Eggs, MLB Promotes First Female Ump
“Now there’s a look in your eyes like black holes in the sky.” – Shine On You Crazy Diamond I-IX by Pink Floyd
All Cubs fans desperately needed yesterday’s day off, for mental health reasons alone. I’d like to take this time to remind everybody that the Brewers have played at a .733 clip over their past 61 games, which is unsustainable. Secondly, if Milwaukee does continue to play that well, no team will catch and/or beat them. Finally, the Cubs still have baseball’s third-best record, second-best in the National League, and a 98% chance of making the playoffs. All good things.
There’s good news on the horizon, too. Chicago’s runs created per 27 outs is about 0.60 better than Milwaukee’s, so the Cubs should be able to whittle into that four-game deficit. As a team, their ISO is also about 25% better than the Brewers. If the Cubs can find a way to bust out their bats, that should help reverse course. The North Siders hit three homers in Wednesday’s 6-1 win over the Reds, one each by Dansby Swanson, Ian Happ, and Seiya Suzuki, which bodes well for a potential breakout. Now it’s time to get Kyle Tucker and Michael Busch back into the Sacred Order of Big Flies.
The Cubs are also near the top of the league in barrel rate and exit velocity, areas where the Brewers struggle. Yes, Chicago’s North Side Baseballers are slumping, and at the worst possible time, too. But those stats tell us a course correction is coming for both teams, so let’s exercise a little patience.
Take a deep breath, and let’s focus on beating the Cardinals this weekend. The Cubs will finish with 95-96 wins if they can play .600 ball the rest of the way. That’s a weighty task, but not impossible. If 96 wins doesn’t take the NL Central, then hats off to the team that wins 97 or more.
Cubs News & Notes
- Cade Horton is looking more like an ace with each scoreless performance, and he might just be single-handedly saving the Cubs’ season.
- Here’s your friendly reminder that Horton is under team control through 2031. It would have been shortsighted to include the burgeoning ace — along with other premium prospects — for MacKenzie Gore or Joe Kelly.
- Horton has been Chicago’s most efficient starter across six weeks.
- Putting it bluntly, Chicago’s postseason could be judged by how well Horton performs as the team’s No. 3 starter once the regular season ends.
- Willi Castro will also be Chicago’s x-factor in the playoffs, if you’d like my opinion.
- Reliever Andrew Kittredge bounced back from an unsightly performance on Tuesday with an immaculate inning on Wednesday.
- Chicago’s teamwide slump coincided with a poor offensive stretch ($) by Tucker.
- Tucker assessed his recent performance rather bluntly: “It sucks.”
- The right fielder took some much-needed PTO on Wednesday and hopes the rest will help him reset.
- Jed Hoyer firmly believes the Cubs are about to break out of their two-month slump.
- Most of Chicago’s players, coaches, and front office personnel believe it’s a little too early to start scoreboard watching. We still have nearly eight weeks of baseball remaining.
- I’ve got some distasteful State Fair staples for you (see below) if you think the division battle between the Brewers and Cubs is the fifth most entertaining among all six races.
- Anthony Rizzo blamed the World Series hangover as the main reason the Cubs didn’t win back-to-back championships. They certainly looked gassed in the 2017 NLCS loss to the Dodgers.
- Yadier Molina will serve as a guest bench coach during this weekend’s Cubs-Cardinals series.
- Hey, who’s spending Oktoberfest with the Cubs?
Ball Four
The Cubs may have no chance if Jacob Misiorowski is impervious to bug-covered donuts. Thankfully, he is not. I was at the State Fair on Thursday and politely passed on this delicacy.
Did I bug you? I didn’t mean to.
Brewers rookie Jacob Misiorowski was pressured into taking a bite out of a bug-covered donut at the Wisconsin State Fair 🤨 pic.twitter.com/ULf0h2MVlJ
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) August 7, 2025
Central Intelligence
- Milwaukee (70-44): The Brewers have won 23 of their last 29 road tilts, including 11 of their last 12. That’s how you climb to 25+ games over .500 with slightly less than one-third of the season remaining. Again, a reconciliation is coming, and if one does not, Milwaukee deserves all the praises.
- Cincinnati (60-56): If Elly De La Cruz can finish the season with at least 20 home runs and an .830 OPS, he would be only the sixth National League player aged 23 or younger to have at least 20 homers, 30 steals, and an .830 OPS in a season. He’d join Corbin Carroll (2023), Ronald Acuña Jr. (2019), Hanley Ramirez (2007), César Cedeño (1973-1974), and Jim Wynn (1965).
- St. Louis (58-58): The Cardinals hope to execute a complete teardown this winter, though Nolan Arenado, Sonny Gray, and Willson Contreras hold full no-trade clauses.
- Pittsburgh (50-66): Paul Skenes has started 47 games since being promoted to the Pirates. He had not allowed more than seven hits in any start until last night.
How About That!
Jen Pawol will work the bases in Saturday’s Marlins-Braves game, making her MLB’s first regular-season female umpire.
Executives are calling this year’s trade deadline one of the best ever.
Tonight’s historic matchup between the Blue Jays and Dodgers pits Max Scherzer against Clayton Kershaw. Both future Hall-of-Famers are members of the 3,000 strikeout club.
Mike Trout needs two more home runs to reach 400 for his career. Imagine where he’d be had he been able to stay consistently healthy.
Opponents are convinced the Red Sox are stealing signs again.
Extra Innings
What are the offensive ramifications if Tucker walks and Owen Caissie replaces him? Do we think Caissie can hit 20-25 taters with 85-95 ribeyes as a rookie? I’m sure there will be a drop in BA, OBP, and OPS, and Tucker is better defensively.
Kyle Tucker (left) and Owen Caissie (right) — slow-mo look at their homer mechanics.
Fans often say Caissie “looks like Tuck,” and there are some similarities… but man, Tucker’s stability and control really stand out. pic.twitter.com/9X3sdJXEUH
— Brendan Miller (@brendan_cubs) July 13, 2025
They Said It
- “Just doing the best I can. Gotta grind through it. Try and figure it out and turn it around. I mean, it’s fine. I gotta do my job regardless of how I feel. I’ll just continue that the best I can.” – Tucker
- “I don’t know how much is pain, discomfort, how much is bad habits [Tucker] got into to compensate for something, and just how much is a slump. There’s no question it’s had some impact on him.” – Jed Hoyer
- “There’s a lot of good things happening there, it’s just [Kyle’s] missing some pitches he feels like he should hit. That’s hitting sometimes. You miss a pitch you should hit, a pitcher makes a good pitch and you’re walking back to the dugout. That’s the fine line of hitting in the big leagues.” – Craig Counsell
- “They’re vulnerable against lefties. When Tucker isn’t hitting them, they’re going to have trouble. But he usually does, so that sets up that whole middle of their lineup. Since you asked, I didn’t think they would touch their offense at the deadline. They have the pieces already there to do damage both in power and speed.” – Anonymous Coach
- “What we were doing for the first two months — while unbelievably fun — I think at some level, you kind of knew that wasn’t sustainable. I mean, you look at all the underlying numbers, we were gonna have some regression. I think now we’re due for the opposite. When you look at our numbers over the last like nine weeks or so, I think we’re due for some of these guys to come out of their slumps. So I try to be pretty balanced about it.” – Hoyer
Friday Walk-Up Song
I’m sending complimentary entomophagy catering to Milwaukee’s clubhouse tonight.
