Good morning!
Sorry for being a bit late this morning!
I wanted to make sure I had a chance to discuss the Cubs, and sending an email about a sweep with three innings left in today's game could have been problematic.
Of course, it ended up not mattering. Oh well.
Cubs swept in Tokyo.
The Cubs are headed back to the United States with 160 games left, zero wins, a full tank of gas and half a pack of cigarettes after a winless performance in the season-opening Tokyo Series against the Dodgers.
In Tuesday's season opener, the Cubs' offense was no match for Dodgers second-year sensation Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Despite Shota Imanaga's four no-hit innings, Chicago scrounged up just three hits and one run all game.
This morning, Los Angeles' offense came alive against Justin Steele, taking advantage of a Carson Kelly passed ball and smacking two home runs off the Cubs' ace. A 3-0 hole put Chicago behind the eight ball early, and Shohei Ohtani's first home run* of the year essentially sank the Cubs in the fifth inning.
Why the asterisk? Ohtani's homer appeared to be falling short of the wall when it was snagged by a fan in the bleachers. The original call on the field was a good home run, and the call stood upon further review... I don't know. Looked like an outstretched arm snagged it while it was still in the field of play.
But Ohtani's home run wasn't the sole difference in the game. Steele wasn't good enough, and the bats just haven't come alive yet. Seiya Suzuki, Michael Busch and Pete Crow-Armstrong were held hitless in the two games.
Someone pointed this out online yesterday, and I can't find the original tweet to credit the author, but I loved the thought: It's got to be a little disappointing for Cubs fans to watch Chicago play against a team built of guys they wish they'd signed but never really had a chance to get.
The good news for the Cubs? They've still got 98.8% of the regular season left.
All in all, the Tokyo Series felt like a mix between an exhibition and one of the Cubs' playoff series against the Diamondbacks and Dodgers in the late 2000s, where Chicago's lineup couldn't hit a beach ball when it mattered.
If you were lucky enough to go (or be sent via GoFundMe), it seemed like a great experience being immersed in Japan's incredible baseball culture. And for those of us who couldn't go, waking up at 5 a.m. was a neat Opening Day memory we'll cherish at some point.
However, Opening Day abroad just didn't feel like Opening Day. The Cubs' next regular season game isn't until next Thursday against the Diamondbacks...at 9:10 p.m. Surely, it'll feel real by then, right?
The People's Fullback
Doug Kramer is coming back! The Hinsdale native re-signed with the Bears on Tuesday for one year.
Kramer, who came to Chicago as a part of Ryan Poles' first draft class in 2022, had struggled to carve out a role with the Bears and actually left for the Arizona Cardinals briefly in 2023.
But the depth interior offensive lineman found himself in a new role in 2024 in Chicago's dysfunctional, near-dystopian offense: fullback.
Tasked with laying down the boom in short-yardage situations, Kramer's presence quickly became associated with scoring...until Week 8 in Washington, where in the third-string center's lone carry of the year, he fumbled the ball at the goalline with a chance to take the lead in the fourth quarter.
I enjoyed Kramer just kind of being the offense's bowling ball. Then, Shane Waldron decided to make him a little more important at a critical time. It failed—miserably. And Kramer took a vast majority of the heat, but the reality is that he shouldn't have been in a position to fumble a go-ahead score at the goalline for his first career carry anyway.
It was just one of those things. I had campaigned for Kramer to get a carry at points throughout his run as the team's fullback, but never could I have imagined Waldron would've used him right then.
Kramer took full responsibility after the fact and was near-despondent, but the truth was always that it wasn't exclusively (or even mostly) his fault. He'd also played guard earlier in the game due to the plethora of injuries the Bears had sustained on the line.
But no, Shane — trot out your fourth-string guard who was thrust into playing out of necessity for an incredibly important carry. Waldron was ultimately fired two weeks later.
Quick Hits
Can't Win 'Em All: But you've got to win one at some point, right? The Blackhawks' 6-2 loss to the Kraken on Tuesday night was one of those "bury the tape, burn the ground, forget it ever happened" games. Connor Bedard and Tyler Bertuzzi's first-period goals put the Hawks up early, and a strong first 18 minutes made it seem like Chicago might be headed for a blowout.
That was technically true. Seattle scored six unanswered while a completely helpless Blackhawks team failed Spencer Knight defensively. Paging Kevin Korchinski in Rockford because that was brutal.
Today!
📺 CHGO Bears @ 12 on YouTube
📺 CHGO Blackhawks @ 2:30 on YouTube
⚾️ White Sox @ Brewers @ 3:10
📺 CHGO Bulls @ 8:30 on YouTube
🏀 Bulls @ Suns @ 9 on CHSN
📺 CHGO Bulls POSTGAME on YouTube
