OSS: Cubs win a road series for the first time since April Three up: Anthony Rizzo continues to thrive in the leadoff spot, launching yet another home run. He had three hits total and scored three runs. He was knocked in by Willson Contreras in his other non-HR runs, who was the spark that got the Cubs moving today. Lackey …
Series Preview: Chicago Cubs (32-33) @ Pittsburgh Pirates (30-36)
The red-hot Cubs come rambling into Pittsburgh for a 3-game skirmish this weekend (note: Cubs not actually red-hot). The Pirates are a really, really interesting team considering that they don't have an offensive standout this year, but they don't have any offensive black holes. From top to bottom, the OPS+ of the 8 position players is 122, 114, 106, 103, …
Series Preview: Colorado Rockies (38-23) at Chicago Cubs (30-28)
I feel extremely vindicated in my confidence that the Rockies were going to be good this year. Please disregard any comments that I may have made in the podcast to open the season about how they would end up with a worse record than the Padres, that must have been deceptively edited. Oddly enough, the Rockies record is not built …
Cubs 10, Marlins 2 (6.6.17)
OSS: The Cubs offense is waking from its deep slumber. Three Four up: The big play of the game was a three run bomb by Anthony Rizzo in the fifth inning that put the Cubs up 3-1. They never looked back the rest of the way. Rizzo also knocked in a run and scored as a part of the Cubs …
Cubs 3, Marlins 1 (6.5.17)
OSS: Cubs blast two homers with the wind blowing in to extend winning streak to four games and get back to a tie for first place. Three up: The biggest hit of the game was Kris Bryant's two run homer in the first inning, which plated Zobrist. Zobrist himself just missed hitting one out to lead off the game for …
Cardinals 6, Cubs 7 (6.14.17)
OSS: Cubs complete the sweep of the Cardinals behind a big day from Ian Happ. Three up: Ian Happ launched two homers off of Michael Wacha, driving in more than half the the Cubs runs. One of them even had runners on base. The novelty! Based on what few innings I've seen he looks credible in CF too. Albert Almora …
Cubs 5, Cardinals 3 (6.3.17)
OSS: Kyle Schwarber blasts the Cubs to at least a series win. Three up: Kyle Schwarber hit an opposite field grand slam off of Mike Leake in the seventh to put the Cubs ahead. You may have heard that Schwarber is in a bit of a slump, having just five hits in the previous two weeks going into this game. …
Cubs 3, Cardinals 2 (6.2.17)
OSS: What strange new world is this? Three up: The key play of the game was Anthony Rizzo taking third base on a groundout in the eighth inning to set up the go ahead run on a sac fly from Heyward. His double preceding that helped too I guess. Heyward also drove in the Cubs second run with a double …
Series Preview: Chicago Cubs (25-24) at San Diego Padres (19-33)
Well that was, uh, not great. At least the Cubs transition from playing one of the best teams in the league to one of the worst. Weird shit tends to happen on west coast road trips though, so who knows what will happen. The Padres are as bad as their record, with the second worst offense in baseball by wOBA …
Series Preview: Chicago Cubs (25-21) at Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles (27-20)
The Dodgers pitching is tops in the league, which is not a huge surprise, but their offense is way better than I would have guessed as well. They were fourth in the NL in offensive production last year, and are right there again in 2017. Turner, Grandal, and Seager are having big years as expected, but they are also getting …