chicago-cubs Page 9 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The MLB Narcs Have Come For Willson Contreras And His Venezuela Sleeve
Cubs catcher Willson Contreras began wearing a Venezuelan-flag sleeve to honor his home country last summer, and it has become an essential component of his uniform. But as part of MLB’s recent efforts to crack down on uniform regulations, Contreras has been told by the league that he can no longer ...

Willson Contreras Is On An Unholy Tear
Cubs catcher Willson Contreras came into Wednesday’s game against the Marlins stuck in a bit of a slump, having gone 4-for-35 over his previous nine appearances. Contreras, who smacked 21 dingers in 2017, tallied just one in April, and hadn’t had a multi-hit game since April 10. The nine-game slump ...

Ben Zobrist Calls Out MLB For Threatening Punishment Over Black Cleats
Cubs second-baseman Ben Zobrist likes to wear all-black cleats to home games. To hear him tell it, that’s no random fashion statement—it’s done to commemorate a time in baseball’s past when all-black cleats were the norm. But baseball has collectively-bargained uniform standards, just like every oth...

Javier Báez Came Up With A Novel Way To Prevent Sign-Stealing
Sunday’s game between the Cubs and Rockies was an entertaining one, featuring some stellar defensive plays from Albert Almora, Jr. and a handful of dingers. Also, we have a middle-infielder beef!...

Anthony Rizzo Thinks Baseball Could Have A Shorter Season
A trendpiece’s worth of baseball games have already been canceled this season because of inclement/completely seasonal weather, and also because of a hole in the Blue Jays’ roof. Jackie Robinson Day as well as the Red Sox’s Marathon Monday were hamstrung by poor playing conditions. Cubs first basema...

Jon Lester's Weird One-Hop Pickoff Move Succeeds
Cubs pitcher Jon Lester’s complete and utter inability to successfully deliver a pickoff throw has been well-documented and exploited over the years, so he began trying something new in spring training this year: one-hopping the ball to first base. (Or more-than-one hopping it, if necessary. “I don’...

Marlins Give Up Homer On First Pitch Of Season
About 25 seconds into the baseball season, the Miami Marlins were losing....

Jon Lester Is Doing This On Purpose Now
Despite being a professional athlete who is perfectly capable of throwing fastballs with pinpoint accuracy, Cubs starter Jon Lester cannot for the life of him throw the ball to first base. His struggles in this area have been well-documented over the past few seasons, but this spring he’s trying a n...

Lovable Large Boy Kyle Schwarber Is No Longer Large
Cubs slugger Kyle Schwarber, the big burly lad who everyone loves, spent the offseason trying to get ripped. It appears that he succeeded:...

Anthony Rizzo At Vigil For Parkland Mass Shooting: "Something Has To Change"
The day after a former student with an AR-15 killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Chicago Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo returned to his alma mater and gave an emotional speech at a candlelight vigil....

Report: Free Agent Yu Darvish Signs $150 Million Deal With Chicago Cubs
Hey, would you look at that! A good baseball player has signed a free agent contract with a good baseball team! So it’s not impossible!...

MLB Admits That Nationals Got Screwed By Botched Call In Game 5 Of NLDS
MLB chief baseball officer Joe Torre confirmed today that the controversial passed-ball call during Max Scherzer’s meltdown in Game 5 of the NLDS was, in fact, wrong....

Dodgers Blow Out Cubs To Advance To World Series
For the first time in this series, the Cubs failed to score first. The Dodgers took full advantage, with an 11-1 victory to win their first pennant in nearly 30 years....

This Is The Arc Of Joe Maddon's Anger
In the eighth inning of tonight’s 3-2 Cubs victory over the Dodgers, there was, for a few moments, a third-strike call on Curtis Granderson. Just until the umpires conferred for a bit and determined that Granderson had in fact fouled the ball off rather than swinging and missing. This made Cubs mana...

The Cubs Live Another Day
After failing to protect an early lead in each of their three NLCS games against the Dodgers so far, the Cubs managed to pull it off tonight with a 3-2 victory to stave off a sweep. ...

The Cubs Just Can't Hit
The Chicago Cubs are down 3-0 in the NLCS, and there’s really no use in thinking too hard about why that is. Joe Maddon has made mistakes, and the bullpen has been pretty bad, but there is a simpler explanation for why the Cubs are one loss away from playoff elimination: They can’t hit the dang ball...

Yu Darvish Mindfucks Carl Edwards Jr., Draws Bases-Loaded Walk
That gloriously frustrating scenario that can only occur in the National League smiled on the Cubs in the sixth inning of their losing battle against the Dodgers, when the pitcher came up with the bases loaded and two outs. Los Angeles was already leading 3-1, trying to bury Chicago, but manager Dav...

John Lackey Should Be In Jail<em></em>
Before John Lackey gave up a walk-off three-run homer to Justin Turner in Game 2 of the NLCS, he treated viewers of the game to a special version of baseball hell....

Joe Maddon Works Soda Tax Criticism Into His Thoughts On Blocking The Plate
In the bottom of the seventh inning of last night’s NLCS Game 1, with the Dodgers leading 4-2, Justin Turner singled through the left side and Chris Woodward, the Dodgers’ third-base coach, waved Charlie Culberson around, setting up a play at the plate....

Max Scherzer Did His Job And It Didn't Matter
If you want to get a feel for just how cruel the game of baseball was to Max Scherzer last night, watch a little bit of his postgame interview, in which he stood shell-shocked in front of his locker and tried to explain how a fifth inning that started with two quick outs ended with four runs crossin...