The beleaguered Nationals played well on Monday with some outstanding defense backing up a strong performance by Max Scherzer. The long shot play on the Reds therefore came up short. I’ll get on a team heading to the playoffs for the Tuesday comp.
CUBS (Haren) @ REDS (Smith)
Take: CUBS
Dan Haren is winding down a long and successful major league career and he’s going to be leaving as part of a playoff team. But Haren doesn’t figure to have much of a role in the playoffs, regardless of how long the Cubs stick around. Therefore, it’s at least possible that tonight’s game against the Reds could be the final start for Haren. That’s absolutely not a definite as depending on the situation, Haren could well be on the mound for Sunday’s regular season finale at Milwaukee. But if home field for the wild card game with the Pirates is still undecided, then my guess is the Cubs might look to someone else to get that start.
In any event, it’s at the very least the next to last start for Haren, and I’m sure he wants to go out on a high note. Haren is strictly back of the rotation material at this point, but he’s still the better starting pitcher tonight and it’s still a meaningful game for the Cubs.
The Reds will send Josh Smith out for the assignment tonight, and the rookie righty has not really shown that he belongs in the bigs. His control has been mostly awful and the contact against Smith has been heavy. The soft contact rate of just 9.2% is pretty telling. So what we have here is a pitcher who walks way too many guys and also gets barreled on a regular basis. That’s not exactly a recipe for success.
I’m surprised this number is where it is as the Cubs are sure to be a popular side tonight. But I just can’t really make a case for the Reds, whereas building one for the Cubs is pretty easy. With the line as inviting as it is, I’ll have to take the bait and back the Cubs to get the job done this evening.
--
My 3* CFB Game of Week is loaded for Saturday!