In a weird way it seems like Christopher Morel’s game-winning, three-run homer happened eons ago-because of yesterday’s “surprising” 4-3 loss to the lowly Royals. To quote 327 different ML managers, “Momentum is tomorrow’s starting pitcher.”
Unless you’re in the throes of a long winning streak, players aren’t likely to talk as much about momentum as fans and the media. We like to attribute something intangible to something that is often explainable.
While Cub fans believe their situation is always unique, in some cases it really isn’t as unique as we’d like to believe. August 10th was the first off day for the Cubs after playing 16 games in 16 days. Since then, the Cubs (and most every other team) have had several days off in the past two weeks. Annually, we’re forced (as fans) to read and hear about the dog days of August, but this season, players and managers are getting plenty of breaks in the action.
Not coincidentally, the Cubs had a day off after their hugely emotional win over the Sox. Everybody wearing a Cubs uniform wanted to play on Thursday-thinking that the magic of Wednesday would necessarily carry over. David Ross sort of complained about the day off. Yet, he’s always the first one to remind everyone when they play 10 games without a break.
It’s been well chronicled how badly the Royals have played this season so it’s funny that they could somehow rebound after a rough loss to the Mariners (at home) Thursday afternoon, travel to Chicago and beat the Cubs.