Cubs’ Danny Palencia getting injury tests after 9th-inning meltdown vs. Nationals
Following his disastrous outing against the Nationals, Cubs closer Danny Valencia is now being checked out for a potential injury.
The Chicago Cubs are trying to finish out their regular season strong before going on what they hope is a lengthy playoff run. However, Sunday's game against the Washington Nationals was an utter disaster for the North Siders.
Chicago entered the ninth inning holding a 3-1 lead. Danny Palencia was called on for the save. Instead, the right-hander allowed five runs without even recording an out, leading to the Cubs shockingly losing 6-3.
Fans won't accept any kind of excuse for the ninth inning implosion. However, it now appears that Palencia may have suffered an injury in the process, via Bob Nightengale of USA Today.
“Cubs closer Danny Palencia, after giving up 5 runs in the 9th, is being tested for tightness in his posterior right shoulder,” Nightengale wrote.
While Palencia's blow up paints a dark cloud over his name, losing him for a significant amount of time would be a major blow for the Cubs. Entering Sunday's game, the closer held a 2.16 ERA and a 57/15 K/BB ratio alongside 22 saves. Ryan Pressly is the only other Chicago pitcher to record more than two saves in 2025, and he is now a free agent.
As a whole, the Cubs rank 12th in bullpen ERA with a 3.94 mark. For as woeful as his outing against the Nationals was, losing Palencia long-term would be much more scary for the Cubs long-term.
While Chicago's season has been filled with drama, a strong playoff run would erase any concerns from earlier in the campaign. However, if Sunday is a sight of what's to come, the Cubs are in serious danger.
Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell are going to face heavy criticism for their offseason choices after Lions' loss to the Packers, 7 more big takeaways
Well, that was not what everyone was hoping to see in Week 1. The Lions went out to Lambeau Field and did not look anything like the 15-2 team they were last year. They looked like a team that wasn’t ready for this game. That’s why they lost 27-13.
If you’re asking me, reacting to exactly one game of a 17-game season is not the way to go, but there will be a ton of criticism. Specifically, on the way the defense played. The Lions didn’t look like one of the top defenses in the league like they were last year. The bulk of the complaints will come in the edge rusher department.
This is all that Lions fans wanted this offseason, and the Lions did downplay it quite a bit and made no effort to get anyone in outside of Ahmed Hassanein in the sixth round of the draft. He’s currently injured. Fans will be hitting the comment sections, the radio guys will be doing their thing, and that one writer will write something about how someone could get fired, and the national media will blame it on Aaron Glenn not being around.
Again. I think it’s way too early to get this way because it’s Week 1, and this roster isn’t even fully formed yet. Detroit is getting some solid players back from injury soon, and things will begin to gel more with time. Throwing Za’Darius Smith at this wasn’t going to change much.
The Jared Goff report
His accuracy was fine. He only threw eight incomplete passes, with an interception being one of them. But the offensive line failed to hold up for him, and Goff spent a good amount of the day being moved off his spot and having to check down.
There just wasn’t much the Lions could do on offense. Part of that was because of the pressure being allowed, and part of it was because the game plan was overly conservative.
Why are edge rushers in coverage on third down?
Kelvin Shepperd talked about keeping the Lions’ defense pretty similar to what it was under Glenn, but said there would be some tweaks. Putting Marcus Davenport in coverage on third down was not the tweak anyone probably had in mind.
The Lions should be bringing pressure with their edges, not dropping them into coverage on third down. You do it sometimes, and it makes sense. The multiple times it happened did not make a lot of sense. Davenport wasn’t the only one who did it. Aidan Hutchinson did it, too. It never worked.
John Morton’s offense felt a bit Jim Caldwell-ish
Look, I know there was this big belief that Ben Johnson was drawing up 38 trick plays a game, but that was not the case. He had his moments, just like this, where you wondered why he was being so conservative.
There is a gelling period, and that was always understood, but this felt like training wheels were on. Even scarier, it felt kind of Jim Caldwell-ish. Like, these are good players you have. You don’t have to hold them back for any reason.
Offensive line struggled more than anyone thought it would
We knew this would happen to a degree, right? The Lions’ offensive line just lost nearly the entirety of their interior with Frank Ragnow’s retirement and Kevin Zeitler leaving for the Titans. Everyone had a bad day. Penei Sewell included.
He allowed three pressures in this game. That was the most on the team. Goff got sacked four times, and they all came from the interior. Growing pains were expected, but such a flat start was not.
An all-around bad day for Terrion Arnold
Arnold looked great in camp, and every coach on this team has been selling everyone on how good he has looked. That did not translate into this game. It might have been because he got hurt.
He went out with a groin injury, and before that, he was targeted six times and allowed four catches for 86 yards and a touchdown. He did have one touchdown-saving PBU early in the game, but otherwise it was a pretty bad day for him.
There was a positive: the Lions’ defense did regroup
No Lions fan wants to hear it, but the Lions’ defense played a lot better in the second half. Yes, it allowed 10 points, but in all fairness, the touchdown the Packers scored came when the Lions had to punt out of their own end zone, and the Packers started basically in the red zone. Otherwise, the Lions were much better. So you take the little wins and move on to next week and build upon it.
