The Sweep, Assad Bounce, Relief Work, and Other Cubs Bullets ...Middle East

My favorite mornings are the ones where the Cubs have a big comeback and/or walked it off the day before, and I get to caveat at the top of the bullets that I’ll have much more fun coming later on the walk-off/comeback itself. I get to look forward to doing that one.

Until then, some of the other bullets …

Although the Cubs required that 9th inning comeback, and although they had so many scoring opportunities in the game that came up empty (they left 7 on base and went 0-9 with runners in scoring position). That said, several of those moments featured some quality contact by the Cubs that went for not thanks to the BABIP dragons. Until the 9th, it felt like one of those games where you were going to have to say something like, eh, sometimes baseball happens. What a bounce-back outing for Javier Assad, coming off one of the worst starts of his career in Philadelphia. Head back down, pitch mix back up, and Mets batters off-balance. There were just three batted balls off of him with an expected batting average higher than .400, and, although there were 13 batted balls with an exit velo over 95 mph, 9 of them were on the ground. It’ll be interesting to see what the Cubs elect to do with Assad when Matthew Boyd returns this week. I don’t see Colin Rea getting pulled from the rotation ahead of Assad right now, but I also don’t know that Assad just gets sent back to Iowa by default. Could be that Assad moves into the bullpen, especially given the rash of injuries there. He’s swung in and out of the pen before, and he might be one of the best 8 options out there. The Cubs (+30) have the third best run differential in all of baseball, and also they remain tied for last place in the NL Central. Cool division, bro. (Also, they’d have the second best record in the American League right now, but in the National League, it is good for eighth. Cool league, bro.) We all want Daniel Palencia back ASAP, but how about the job Caleb Thielbar did in back-to-back days filling in at the end of the bullpen? Huge step-ups from him. There will have to be others. Also, welcome, Corbin Martin. Right into the fire in a one-run game in the 9th inning, and he allows just a single in an otherwise clean inning. As he ramps up (he had an injury issue in the spring), we’ll see if that velocity gets back to the 96+ mph range where he’s likely to be his most effective. He was among the minor league signings where there was a great deal of hope that he could be reclaimed into a real contributor. Michael Conforto continues to contribute off of the bench, and, so far, has been more or less the dream scenario when you sign a guy like that to a minor league deal late in the offseason. It’s not THAT big of a deal, and I don’t really care that much, but I am actually kind of surprised that Moises Ballesteros did this, because I thought it was a widely known no-no:

David Peterson wasn’t happy when Ballesteros casually walked over the mound.Ron Darling explained exactly why that’s a hard DON’T in baseball. pic.twitter.com/WAWCrnu6oe

— Master Flip ?? (@Masterflip_) April 19, 2026 The Cubs handed the Mets an 11-game losing streak, their longest in over 20 years. I still have a fair bit of antipathy for the Mets, so it felt extra sweet to see the Cubs prolong their misery this weekend. Speaking of losing streaks, the Phillies arrive at Wrigley tonight on a five-gamer of their own. Ever since they blew out the Cubs last Monday, they’ve lost five straight, scoring a total of nine runs in those five games. Here’s hoping they keep it up for the four-game set this week in Chicago. Maybe it won’t last, but Edwin Diaz, who has been brutal so far this year, could be the next in a line of formerly-elite relievers who sign with the Dodgers and then implode.

Edwin Díaz faced 4 batters and got 0 outs. It was his first time pitching in 9 days.Alert level: nuclear.

— Mike Petriello (@mike_petriello) April 19, 2026 This is some next-level ABS stuff:

Catcher challenged but the umpire didn't see it. Jeff McNeil told the ump the catcher challenged because he knew it was a ball ? pic.twitter.com/Qf1V7iqrGo

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) April 19, 2026 Honestly I just hope Mason Miller stays healthy at this point (and doesn’t specifically do this against the Cubs, of course). Because we could be witnessing a truly historic run:

Mason Miller this season: 27 strikeouts, 38 batters faced That 71.1% strikeout rate is the highest by a pitcher in his first 11 appearances of a season since at least 1900 t.co/yKIPgYczE6

— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) April 19, 2026 MORE CUBS FROM BLEACHER NATION: Go Ad Free | Subscribe to the BN Newsletter

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