There’s a familiar phrase about getting the carrot or the stick, an idiom drawn from the concept that you can nudge a reluctant horse via promise of a treat or threat of a beating. That’s kind of how the Cubs’ play has seemed here of late as they move in fits and spurts. But one development that might make the difference in them either sputtering or accelerating is to use both the carrot and the stick.
Or, if I can forge this metaphor into a terrible dad-pun, they could use Caratini and his stick. Which is to say that backup catcher Victor Caratini performing at the plate opens things up in a big way.