Cub Tracks zeroes out

Welcome to today’s edition of Cub Tracks news and notes™, a greatest-hits collection of Chicago-style beat writers and bloggers, ground from #Cubs, #MiLB, and #MLB baseball, overheated, and then cold-brewed overnight for maximum flavor.

Hayden Wesneski took the hill in Cincinnati’s Great American Ballpark aiming to extend the seven-game winning skein. His opponent was Hunter Greene, still searching for consistency.

Consistent or not, Greene was slightly more effective, and the Cubs only plated one run while the Reds plated a trio. So ends the streak, and there are two games left.

* means autoplay on, or annoying ads, or both (directions to remove for Firefox and Chrome). {$} means paywall. {$} means limited views. Italics are often used on this page as sarcasm font. The powers that be have enabled sarcasm font in the comments.

• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation): Marcus Stroman’s first year with the Chicago Cubs: a success. “Stroman’s been great,” Cubs manager David Ross said. Jordan Bastian says Stroman is an anchor for the rotation.
• Tony Andracki (Marquee Sports Network*): Pitching success breeds optimism as Cubs head into important offseason. “The whole [pitching] infrastructure has shown guys continuing to push themselves and get better,” Ross said.
• Mia Perlman (Cubbies Crib*): Cubs have makings of a solid 2023 rotation heading into the offseason. “Sure, they might go out and look to add an ace to their rotation, but they won’t need to spend as much on arms as many would’ve suspected even six months ago.”
• Patrick Mooney (The Athletic {$}): Cubs say ‘we’re going to get better’ while Willson Contreras says goodbye again. “... Hoyer’s department doesn’t need a winning record in September and October to get the green light to spend money this offseason, either.”
• Mark Gonzales (Chicago Sun-Times* {$}): Cubs minor-leaguers Matt Mervis and Brennen Davis hope to get their shot in 2023. “Both are headed to the Arizona Fall League.”
• Michael Cerami (Bleacher Nation*): How about a round of applause for the Chicago Cubs’ corner outfielders? “... however awful this Cubs season was at times, bright spots did exist. And the Cubs left and right fielders were among them.” Ross says left and right are ‘taken’, says Maddie Lee.
• Tim Stebbins (NBC Sports Chicago*): How quickly can Brennen Davis help Cubs in 2023? “When my time is called, I want to be ready to help the team succeed,” Davis said Sunday.
• Jason Heyward (The Players’ Tribune*): This Is for Chicago. “From the second I got out of the cab it was like I was in the middle of a dream.”

Food for Thought:

Please be reminded that Cub Tracks and Bleed Cubbie Blue do not necessarily endorse the opinions of writers whose work is linked to in this series of articles. Thanks for reading!