Closer Monkey

Category: Chicago Cubs

  • Jorge De La Rosa vultures a save for the Cubs

    September 15, 2018 Chicago Cubs — The Cubs’ patchwork bullpen turned in an excellent performance last night with Dillon Maples and Jaime Garcia pitching ahead of Jorge De La Rosa. De La Rosa is a surprise candidate for the first save of the Strop and Morrow-less Cubs, but Steve Cishek, CJ Edwards and Justin Wilson had all…

  • Strop hamstring injury leaves Cubs bullpen in disarray

    September 14, 2018 Chicago Cubs — Pedro Strop injured his left hamstring while trying to beat out a throw to first base in the 10th inning of Thursday’s game. Strop was batting with one out and the bases loaded, puzzling Cubs fans, but Joe Maddon explained that he planned to send Strop back out to pitch if…

  • Pedro Strop appears to suffer bad hamstring injury

    September 13, 2018 Chicago Cubs – Closer Pedro Strop was injured Thursday trying to beat out a throw at first base. ESPN’s Buster Olney says based on his reaction, it looks like a left hamstring injury. If that diagnosis is correct, it’s a tough blow to the Cubs, who will now turn to a committee…

  • Yoshihisa Hirano impresses en route to his first MLB save

    September 12, 2018 Arizona Diamondbacks — Heading into Tuesday’s game, we liked Jake Diekman to see the first post-Boxberger save chance, and sure enough Diekman was first out of the ‘pen for the final inning. However, he allowed a double and a bunt single to the only two batters (both lefties) he faced before Yoshihisa…

  • Chavez, Brach pick up extra-inning vulture saves

    September 7, 2018 Chicago Cubs — The Cubs used their late-inning hierarchy earlier in Thursday’s game, so for an extra-inning save, Joe Maddon successfully turned to Jesse Chavez. Meanwhile, injured closer Brandon Morrow is expected to throw from a mound on Sunday for the first time in three weeks — a true test to see if…