Morning Mound Visit: Cubs to add sportsbook to Wrigley Field

Al Yellon | Bleed Cubbie Blue: Chicago City Council approved the Cubs’ plans to add a sportsbook to Wrigley Field. The team plans to construct a 23,000 square foot structure near the corner of Sheffield and Addison. The sportsbook would be open to people without tickets to the game

Justin Choi | FanGraphs: The Mariners have outperformed their expectations going 58-52 through August 5 despite a -51 run differential. Timely hitting has helped, and the Mariners have that in excess. The Mariners have a 135 wRC+ in high leverage situations, easily the best in MLB.

Cory McCartney | Talking Chop: The NL East is an... interesting division. None of the teams are particularly good except for maybe Atlanta and the Marlins who are in third place and last place respectively. The first-place Mets have a negative run differential and could make it to the divisional series with 82 wins while the two runners-up in the NL West duke it out in the Wild Card Game.

Quick Hits

The Giants entered the ninth inning down 4-0 but rallied back to tie on a two-run single from LaMonte Wade Jr.

Bryan Reynolds robbed a homer from Kyle Farmer.

The short porch wasn’t supposed to massively affect Joey Gallo, but it sure helped him hit a crucial three-run homer.