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The Cubs believe Kyle Tucker is back · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome into North Side Territory. Foul Territory Networks Cubs podcast.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: I'm Sahadev Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: your Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick, it
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: was a Cub sweep over the Angels in Orange County.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: And I mean the story of the weekend was Kyle
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Tucker finally awakening, awakening and awakening from that slumber of
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: that nearly two months is probably a month and a
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: half of really poor play, offensively poor play for him,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: especially August. I think five hits over the weekend. Yeah,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: five hits, four of them for extra bases, three home runs,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: seven runs better than four runs scored. He's still taking
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: his walks, he's still not striking out much. Just you know,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Kyle Tucker showing once again that he's a superstar, but
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: also showing once again that look, we can't predict this stuff.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: He did not look good. I I you know, I
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: don't blame anyone for saying, like, what is going on here?
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: He looks terrible. Right before he left that he had
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: the two games offered, the three games off, two days off,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: and then that what it was at that the Thursday,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: right it was a Thursday. He didn't look good in
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: the lineup. When he was back in the lineup, it
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: was it was bad. And that's how things are in baseball.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: You don't know when it's going to change. And it's
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: that one swing you feel something you're like, oh, yeah,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: there it is. I remember how to play baseball. And
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: it's almost like that's what happened for Kyle Tucker. Very odd,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: But you know that's how we shouldn't I should even
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: say it's odd. We've watched enough baseball that we know
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: that this isn't something that's weird. It just happens. It's
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: it's hard to explain and understand sometimes.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: What it's like.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: Craig Counsel said, like this was coming that a guy
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: this accomplished, who's been so good for so long, was
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: things were eventually going to turn. As Jed Hoyer said,
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: you just don't know when, and that's what makes it
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: so hard when you're going through it. But there was
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: a funny scene in Angel Stadium's visiting clubhouse. Is kind
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: of a small group of reporters approaching Kyle Tucker's locker
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: and Pikow Armstrong sees this.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: You just sear him call like.
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: Oh no, the King is back, like sort of a warning. Obviously,
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: he did not put a lot of thought of this.
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: It was just him kind of making an offhand comment,
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: but it really summed up everyone who's followed this, you know,
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: the frustration on social media, the booing at Wrigley Field.
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: It was just like, where is this guy? Why has
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: he disappeared? And is he back? And I think the
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: answer is yes. I mean were like no doubt home runs.
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: Uh.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: There was just a spark to it.
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: You can see what it does for the rest of
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: the team, you know, giving giving the pitching staff some
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: breathing room on Saturday night like that. When was the
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: last time that happened? Yeh, Off the top of my head.
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: It just the day to day feel. It just feels
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: like every game has been kind of like a bit
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: of a slug or like a tight, narrow win. And
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: you know, Tucker, in classic Tucker form, was not reading
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: too much into this, Like it was just funny to
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: hear him like, you know.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: Could this be a turning point? Was this the swing
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: or everything clicked?
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: He's like maybe it's just like which again, I'm like,
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: we're not complaining when we talk about players answers. It's
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: just like funny and it's still revealing, even like a
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: shorter answer, just so like okay, this is you know,
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: kind of how they process it, you know. Council described
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: it as each player has to organize his thoughts every
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: single day and get it to a place where you
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: can go out and get back to work the next day.
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: And it seems like comes have put so much like
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: time and effort into this that I think you can
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: look at one or two games and think, like, all right,
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: this is sort of like restoring things back to normal
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: because it's something they've been kind of working on since June.
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: From the moment that he jammed, is his hand sliding
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: into the base.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you kind of touched on it there, But I
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: thought it was really so Peker Armstrong had a unspectacular
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: i'd say weekend Outside of that huge home run on Friday,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: I don't remember him getting another big hit. I think
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: he had maybe a sac fly, but but that was
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: obviously huge. And the reactions of the two players and
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: how they handle these slumps and how they handle like
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: getting a big hit so different, right, very different ways
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: of going about business. And I don't think either one
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: is wrong or bad or anything like that. I just
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: find it fascinating the way like we could spread this throughout,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Like we can talk about Craig Counsel in this manner too,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: because fans I noticed when they're struggling, fans wanted him
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: to react in some way and scream and yell, maybe
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: get thrown out of a game. We've talked about how
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: that's not who he is. You start acting like a
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: different person. People notice that and they're like, Oh, this
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: guy's panicking. He's like he's losing his mind. They don't.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: I don't think that you get the reaction that you
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: want from something like that when that's not who he
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: is as a person. PCA and Kyle Tucker is so different,
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: and I just really appreciate it. I think a council
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: even touched on this reading your piece and from I
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: think Saturday after Friday's game, and it was just interesting
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: how Counsol talks about these two guys, and it's like,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: look that everyone processes these things differently, everyone handles it differently,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: and there's no wrong way to go about it, and
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: you can come to the same conclusion or get to
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: the same result by going at it in a different,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: completely different way.
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I kind of set up the premise to counsel
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: just how humorous it was to me, at least to
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: have these guys maybe separated by three lockers, and they
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: each did the post home run kind of media scrum
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: within a few minutes of each other, and it was
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: count It was Tucker like, oht know, we'll see tomorrow.
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: It was cool, like I just focus on the next
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: step back. And then you have Pete sort of just
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: like you know, ripping his own performance, kind of processing
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: this inner monologue, you know, running with questions and all
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: these big picture directions and all these answers were coherent
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: and insightful. But defending Tucker, you know, he's getting into
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: how hard it is to.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: Hit at Wrigley Field.
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: You know, the winds, bone in your face, and you
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: got to go to work every day most days knowing
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: like you could do everything right and put a ball
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: in the air and you're not going to get rewarded
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: for it. So Council with you know, is sort of
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: like chuckle and smirk was saying, how you know you
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: found you found the two total opposite ends of the
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: spectrum on that one, and that one is much better
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: for our medium than the other.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: But they both work and that's really all that counts.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely one is better for us what we do,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: and probably I mean Bete's better for the league in
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: a sense, right when I say that, like you can
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: put him on billboards or you know, commercials much easier
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: than Kyle Tucker. Just you know that. I don't think.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: I think you take the results as a fan whatever
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: they are, and enjoy that.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: I think this weekend was a nice breather for fans,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: a nice nice reminder that there's a lot of talent
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: on this team and a good look just a you know,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: good emphasis that this season is so long, a lot
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: of things happen and it's impossible for us to really
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: know how this plays out. We can just you know,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: the when we get annoyed with hearing about projections and
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: this is you know, the back of the baseball card
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: and all that stuff, there's some value in that, you know,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: there's value in being grounded and not overreacting to a
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: smaller sample like one hundred and sixty two games is
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: a lot of baseball, A lot of weird stuff happens.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: I've given up on trying to predict it, but I
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: do try my best to not swing my emotions with
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: the weekend of play, and so I'm not saying the
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: offense is back and Kyle Tucker's like. It feels like
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Kyle Tucker has found something. I don't know if it's yeah,
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: I don't know. But you know, we touched on this
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: last last week when we spoke the pitching has been
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: great's let's touch on more great pitching, but a little
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: bit of a concern after a Sunday's game. The dog
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  Speaker 1: Slash Audio Patrick. The starting pitching has been awesome an
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: updated stat I think June twenty fifth is what I've
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: chosen as the cutoff date, and it's a two ninety
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: starting pitching era since then. That's zero point three to
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: three better than the than the Brewers Chunk, better than
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: the Red Sox. I mean, just just been brilliant and
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: carried this team through an offensive lull. Jameson Taile five
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: innings people were up in arms because he was pretty
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: dominant and only at I want to say, sixty two
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: pitches before he was pulled. After those five innings turned out,
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: he was feeling a little something in that fifth inning.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: What what what did you hear about the groin? What
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: was the reaction like by council, by Tyon and what
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: do you what's your understanding of the situation.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: I think it's an evolving understanding.
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: I think a lot will depend on how kind of
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: Tyne feels were recording Monday, you know, getting back to
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: the ballpark Tuesday. Council framed it as a precautionary move.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: Tyne did not sound like overly concerned. He compared it
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: to something he had at a different point in his career,
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: and he said that was way worse.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: This is way better.
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: I think he's described it as a little crampy sensation.
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: Part of it could have been, you know, he sat
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: a little longer because the Cubs had rallied in Kyle
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: Hendrick's last inning. There not a full inning for Kyle,
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: but that may have set him back a bit as
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: he went out for his warm up pitches and really
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: tried to step on it.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: Just didn't get the body going. It just didn't feel
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: quite right.
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: It's also extremely and unusually hot in Anaheim, really the whole.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: Weekend, But I don't know, could that have been part
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: of it? Also?
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: I asked Tyan, you know, I'm like, you're not a doctor,
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: but you also had a lower half injury earlier this year,
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: like a debt be connected? And he's like, he's a
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: don't know yet, but obviously, like you ask all those questions,
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: you know, sometimes there's connection, sometimes there's not.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: Ty Own sounded upbeat, but he's also I don't know.
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: When you say it's a pretty optimst I guess every
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: like picture in that scenario, it's not like it's not.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: As bad as you thought.
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: But then sometimes you know, it takes a little time
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: to kind of fully absorb, you know, the the options
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: and kind of what's really going on. So that was
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: a It certainly didn't ruin the mood or anything, and
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: it's not a total alarm bells situation, but it's definitely
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: something to monitor as a council acknowledged, Like you take
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: a guy out there as always concern, like that's why
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: he left the game, Like there was no sort of
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: outgetter bullpending strategy going on.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: It was a response to a picture who felt off.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the the heat factor. I think those of us
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: who are still in Chicago may not have understood how
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: hot it was. It like it it's it's fully entering
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: like fall, early fall weather here where it's it's nice
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: and it's seventies and hoodie weather. It's a very different
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: field than what it was, you know, even a week
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: or ten days ago in Chicago. So so I don't
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: think I fully appreciated that until someone mentioned the possibility
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: of heat. I think Ty one, in general ist is
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: an optimistic person. Whenever I talked to him about injuries,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: he's ready to get out there. He wants to get
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: after it. But I think this is one of those
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: situations where he I tend to lean optimistic, So I
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: don't always know, but this, this feels like one of those.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: You know, when something's bad after an injury, or when
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: like this feels like one of those, it's like, Okay,
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: nobody's freaking out. I think Council put it, well, you
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: got to monitor it, you got to check it. We'll
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: see how he is. Tuesday probably has a throwing day. Soon,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: you'll probably throw on Tuesday, and you know, if it
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: comes out of that and it's like nothing's going on,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: then it was just like some random flare up. That's
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: what you have to hope because you just don't want
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: I guess, I guess if he's hurt, you can just
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: call a sad right back up.
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean if you have to put him on
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: the ile a sade. I'm trying to remember my days here.
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: But like he was option but still with the club,
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: which is like not unusual. So yeah, you know, I
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: didn't get his flight. Itinerary like where exactly he was heading,
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: but like obviously he pitched really well on Friday, he
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: was still around Saturday. Again, this is all normal for
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: a guy like that to keep staying his routine with
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: the major league staff.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: It's not like he was going to go pitch for
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: Iowa on Sunday.
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: But this is what council I talked about the other day,
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: of like you have to always be prepared for different
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: possibilities and scenarios, and he felt he's felt like as
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: a group they've done that pretty well this year.
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah, did he was there a quote in your piece
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: that I read that basically was like he needs like
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: this is his therapy, or like he made this may
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: be his problem or something like that.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: What was that in reference to?
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: So this is one of those like it's really hard
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: to sort of appreciate unless you're kind of standing in
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: the dugout or in his office, but it is fun
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: like talking to counsel and kind of presenting a concept
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: and then just like seeing how he kind of squints
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: and tilts his head. It was just like, where are
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: you going with this? And basically my point was like this,
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: I think it was Friday. This was Friday, so was
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: before Tucker broke out, And I was like, look, like
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: you talked about every major league season there's challenges, so
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: we say bring them on. No one is scared on
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: that about that, And I was like, look, it's probably
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: realistic that like Kyle Tucker's going to win learn how
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: to hit again, Like, isn't your concern gotta be the pitching?
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: And he was just like we could be in an
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: unbelievable situation and I'd be concerned about our pitching. Maybe
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: that's my issue that I need to talk about, and
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: so like it really illustrated his very dry sense of humor.
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: I'm glad you caught that in the middle of the
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: story because I got a kick out of it, and
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: it really illustrates his kind of baseball worldview, how the
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: front office thinks about it, how Tommy hot of the.
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: Groups thinks about it.
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: Like, you know, I could see them, you know, winning
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: a playoff round and he's already like worrying about who's
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: gonna like, you know, take the sixth thing and in
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: game one of the next round.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: That's just the nature of the job.
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: And he's kind of a warrior slash you know, a
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: bit cynical as well. So that was kind of the
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: the genesis of that back and forth.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: Okay, that was interesting. Yeah, I mean, pitching is always
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: the question, and I you know, I think this this
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: staff has been unbelievable, better than I expected with especially
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: with these injuries. I just expected a step back from
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: Shoda this year. You lose Justin Steele. I may have
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: been high on Matthew Boyd, it was not this high
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: on Matthew Boyd. Just an impressive run from this group
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: right now and really have have kept them going strong,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: really you know, facilitated that that sweep over the weekend.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: Let's let's talk a little bit about where the Cubs
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: are at, how how this team is doing, and you
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: know if they have a chance. Now, after we pronounce
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: them dead in the division, we'll take a quick break
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: of here. Right back, Oka KP.
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  Speaker 3: There.
• 19:01
  Speaker 6: It is the Grail, which is the best card in
• 19:04
  Speaker 6: the pack and worth the most. There are some other
• 19:06
  Speaker 6: cards that we're chasing, and you can see the entire
• 19:08
  Speaker 6: lineup so that you know what you're in the running for.
• 19:11
  Speaker 6: There's the Yamamoto signed card. Now let's open up our
• 19:15
  Speaker 6: pack and see how we do. We have ourselves a
• 19:20
  Speaker 6: really cool graphic and then a show. Hey, O Tani,
• 19:25
  Speaker 6: fifty to fifty card from last year, what do you
• 19:28
  Speaker 6: want to do? Should we sell it right back to
• 19:30
  Speaker 6: them for sixteen or should we keep it?
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: You should give it to me, I'll keep.
• 19:35
  Speaker 6: Good answer, fine, I will give it to you. Since
• 19:38
  Speaker 6: the Blue Jays didn't GETO Tani, you can get this
• 19:40
  Speaker 6: fifty to fifty card instead. Use the code foul foul
• 19:43
  Speaker 6: to get yourself twenty percent off your first slab pack
• 19:45
  Speaker 6: or card purchase. Yes, you get to keep that card
• 19:48
  Speaker 6: if you want it, They send it to you foul
• 19:50
  Speaker 6: at Arena club dot com slash foul.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Patrick. The Cubs pulled off the sweep, it was a
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: you know, it's nice, nice eight and two in their
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: last ten. It certainly didn't feel that way a week ago.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: A week ago, you know, they'd just come off to
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: uninspiring wins. I'd say over the weekend against the Pirates,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: it was fine, did what you needed to do. The
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: offense still hadn't broken out. They were They exited that
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: five game set with the Brewers out seven games. I
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: think we kind of said like that that final game
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: was like, you know, a swing game in a sense.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: I think getting it was huge. You know, getting it
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: would have been huge Council's right counsel. There was a
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: reason Council was a little off after that game and
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: not celebratory after winning a five game series. But look,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: it's I just said this, it's a long season. I like,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: weird things happened five games out at this point isn't
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: is a lot, but it's not insurmountable. And the Brewers
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: had to come down to earth, and it seems like
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: they are, you know, their their schedule is a little tougher,
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: they're not getting every bounce. They're still a damn good team.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: But so were the Cubs, So I maybe they're going
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: to make this fun, no doubt.
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: I mean, that was I think the last thing I'd
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: asked Counsel before leaving Angel Stadium of like, look, you
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: were down, like you you're relatively disappointed and kind of
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: surprising that of character after winning a series against the
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: division rival and you know, kind of battling through you know,
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: rain delays, rainouts, doubleheader, the Kyle Zucker saga, and you know,
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: his point was like you have to just keep focusing
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: on every single day, Like they just have to keep
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: stacking wins. And it's not out of the question. We
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: saw it in twenty eighteen, you know, Council's Brewers club down.
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: I believe it was five games that might have been
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: Labor Day weekend. It was the beginning of September certainly,
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: and they were able to close that gap and chase
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: them down.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: You know, I think.
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: The schedule is pretty favorable for the Cubs if they
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: can keep the pitching healthy. I think the jury is
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: still out on the offense, Like I think we need
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: to kind of see more and not just Tucker.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: I mean, say as got to get going.
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: I think we'll see how say Matt Shaw does you know,
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: like if he can he continue this, is he gonna
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: hit all wall. He's probably gonna regress a little bit.
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: Just to get that lineup functioning closer to what it
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: was in the first half, I think is huge. Yet
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: seeing these the innings puzzle, as a council likes to
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: call it, like how are they going to figure figure
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: that out? But they're in a pretty good spot. I mean,
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: you know, seeing Cad Horton walk off the field with
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: a blister last week after the you know, leading into
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: the will they or won't they bench Kyle Tucker? All
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: the booze coming down like it was it was the vibes.
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: We were pretty bad, you know a week ago, and
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: uh it shifted. That's just kind of a baseball season.
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: So I feel like the odds are definitely not in
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: their favor. The math is gonna be hard to make
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: it work, but they're giving themselves a chance. You're gonna
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: need sweeps, You're gonna need series wins and you're the
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: Brewers are just gonna have to come down, which we've
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: been waiting to happen for a while, and maybe it is.
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: I mean we don't we don't watch them every day.
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: We just sort of look up and see these crazy highlights. Yeah,
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: kind of late inning wins. But they're in a pretty
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: good spot. It's it's kind of amazing, even though for
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: as long as we've done this, like it's still is
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: surprising of like, oh wait, like in a week things
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: can like really really flip.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah it, I mean, council said it. I can't remember
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: if you were there that day, Patrick or not, but
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: n'lb dot COM's Brewers reporter Adam mcclvey was asking him about,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: you know, the chase and can it be fun? Can
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: you catch get like is this a fun thing? Like
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: trying to chase down the Brewers, And then eventually it
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: got to the point where it's like he's like, well,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: you want to be on the other side. It's like,
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: you know, like obviously you want to be the Brewers,
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: Like the Brewers are five games up, and like you'd
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: rather be there if Cubs can pull this off and
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: get closer and make this interesting. It would just be
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: fun that that's the bottom line, Like, make it interesting.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: I think fans would enjoy that. They're gonna want the division,
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: you know, you want the division for the for the
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: sake of you know. I think it's a big deal.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: We haven't seen it payoff. I asked Jet about this
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: at some point that maybe a month ago, to the
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: need to get that one of those top two seeds. Look,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: it hasn't paid off yet, but it's it's early in
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: this playoff format. The assumption is you want that buy
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: get your pitching sorted out, get your relievers nice and healthy,
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: get anybody that's banged up days of rest, and allow
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: them to get healthy for the postseason and hopefully ready
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: to play a full month of baseball. But you know
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: the fact that we're talking about this a week after
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: it felt like they were dead and then people were
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: worrying about the Reds catching them and them completely falling
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: out of the playoffs. I wasn't at that because I
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: just don't, like, I just think, like, like, I'm just
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: so used to feeling like this team sucks, this team
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: is awesome, and then and then it flipping so quickly,
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: and I have to remind myself to not be a
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: prisoner of the moment, because it's so easy in baseball
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: to forget that, oh, what happened yesterday almost doesn't matter
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: unless it's an injury. The things that happened the day
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: before barely matter. You just have to And that's why
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: maybe Kyle Tucker's mindset is the right one, and we
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: just need to take a lesson from him. Now. Okay,
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Maybe maybe I'm fixed, Maybe the offense
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: will get going. Who knows. Yesterday doesn't count essentially anymore.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: All it is is a win in the you know,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: in that column. Other than that, it's time to move
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: on and we have like it's really hard to do that,
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: but you know that the ballplayers are good at doing that.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: They're better at it than us. I don't know, I
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: think it. I do think seeing a little bit of
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: signs from the offense was was helpful. I do not
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: fully think they've turned a corner. I do think sometimes
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: there's just like you just got to get these big hits.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: Like the difference in that game was Reese Maguire hitting
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: that grand slam. I thought it was gonna turn into
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: Did he just miss a basis clearing double by an
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: inch and now he's gonna pop out and they're gonna
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: get one run out of this or some crap, and
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: and instead they poured it on and yesterday they didn't
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: get like PCA got the sack fly and then Carson
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: Kelly got a single instead of breaking it open. I
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: think there was a later basis loaded situation with two
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: outs and the Cups just haven't been getting any of
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: those hits. They got a couple of them this weekend finally,
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: where they're getting these two out run scoring situation hits.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: I think those are the little things that it's like, Okay,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: you just just put yourself more in those situations. You'd
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: almost stop doing that regularly. Put yourself in those situations
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: more often, you'll get a couple of these blowouts. They're
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: they're not a team that strikes out. So I feel like,
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: oh yeah, they can. They can just put the ball
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: in play and good things should happen. A little bit
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: of luck sit durm for them too. Not saying it's
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: all luck. I'm just saying a little bit of that
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: can start going their way again. And then suddenly you're like,
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: oh yeah, here's that offense again.
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's it's fascinating to watch, like how
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: all these things are interconnected in those like small moments
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: that you're talking about, Saha, they have of like Okay,
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: if this ball falls a certain way, then you have
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: this sort of breathing room. Then you organize your bullpen differently,
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: then that impacts how you can attack the next game.
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: Just the contagious nature of some of this stuff on
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: the hitting side, certainly, like there was a lot of
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: energy and relief and sort of release for Tucker and
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: for pre co Armstrong, I mean, Council was sort of
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: joking that assistant hitting coach John Mayley was like praying
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: in the dugout for Pete to do something just because
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: you know, mainly works so closely with PCA and has
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: for a long time and is super invested with him,
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: and is obviously a long time, well respected, well liked
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: member of the organization who really you know, you know,
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: feeling it for him and for him to get that,
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: you know, I think can matter. It gives you a
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: little bit of a reset there where it's not kind
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: of weighing on you as much, and you know, credit
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: to Pete. I mean, the other night, he made another awesome,
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: you know, diving catch and center field that like you
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: look up and you're just like, yeah, he's he'll catch that,
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: and then you just market on your scorecard routinely on
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: plays that are not at all routine. So very curious
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: to see how they present in San Francisco, what sort
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: of updates we get, and how how their position going
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: into course field, which is never an easy place to pitch,
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: but at least you get to face one of the
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: worst teams of all time.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, that's that's the benefit right now. Going
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: to Colorado, weird things happen there, but still.
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, weird things happen there.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, San Francisco is you know, they're not playing well.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: They're not a great team. They had a good weekend
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: against the Brewers, but they even blew one of those
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: games if I'm remembering correctly, So you know, they should
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: be they should like they should end up being a
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: good road trip. But again, I don't like making predictions
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: in baseball because this game could be insanely stupid sometimes,
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: but we'll see how. I think San Francisco could be
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: the Pasky one of the remaining two series on this trip.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: We'll see how San France, how it all goes there,
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: and if this offense really has woken up. I think
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: that's the biggest, the biggest thing in the and the
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: tie on update will be interesting when when you get
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: that all right, We'll be back with two more episodes
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: later this week. Thanks so much for listening, and everyone,
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: this is Northside Territory. Make sure to ree subscribe, subscribe
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: to the YouTube channel, and subscribe to The Athletic where
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: Patrick and I are on top of all things cubs.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listen. Everyone, take