1. These guys.
Holy heck. Things were looking a little mediocre, and *BAM*—looking great again.
2. What a way to end a 16-game stretch.
16 games in 16 days, ten against likely playoff teams. Cubs went 11-5, but the more impressive thing is that their most impressive win of the 16—the one in which they beat a Cy Young candidate on his own field with two of their best five or six hitters getting the day off—came on the last day of the stretch.
3. Go get some sleep.
Not as many day games over the next stretch (which is just twelve games), but still, get that rest. Need everybody healthy.
4. Sounds like Javy Báez is ok?
David Ross seems to like giving guys days off in chunks and seems to like playing it cautiously with injuries. I will not complain about either of those things, and I certainly don’t know enough right now (or probably ever) to evaluate how smart the approach or its alternatives are. Anyway, his comments about Báez yesterday pregame made it sound like he’ll be back in the lineup for the weekend, which feels good.
5. Jake Arrieta!
Having been an Arrieta hater at times this year, credit where it’s due. The Cubs need him to pitch like that with Alzolay on the IL. The hard contact was there, but it wasn’t hard contact in the air, which meant it wasn’t as damaging of hard contact as we’ve seen. Second-best K/BB split of the year, too, and the best one came against the Pirates. Glad he was yanked when he was (that’s what a great bullpen’s for), amazed he made that happen.
6. Sergio Alcántara was DFA’d by the Detroit Tigers.
Also by the Chicago Cubs, but let’s focus on the fact that Major League Baseball as a whole said, “This guy? This 24-year-old guy? Not good enough to be one of our 1,200 players on the 40-man rosters.” That home run was a series dagger.
To be fair, Alcántara has a .248 xwOBA over his 25 PA’s, so let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves with him. He’s not Patrick Wisdom (who has a .466 xwOBA, best among those with 40 or more plate appearances on the season, a very small number of plate appearances but also eight fewer than Wisdom has). But he’s filled in admirably in the infield, and for those of us ready to see Eric Sogard move along when someone comes back (Matt Duffy?), that home run was encouraging.
***
Around the Division:
Vladimir Gutierrez turned in seven innings as the Reds beat the Brewers, and with that the Cubs are back in first place. St. Louis beat Cleveland.
Standings, FanGraphs division championship probabilities:
1. Cubs: 35-27, 28.7%
2. Milwaukee: 34-27, 53.6%
3. St. Louis: 32-30, 9.1%
4. Cincinnati: 29-30, 8.6%
5. Pittsburgh: 23-37, 0.0%
The Reds and Brewers start their series finale in a few minutes. Luis Castillo vs. Freddy Peralta. The Cardinals are off.
Up Next:
Three with the Cardinals in Chicago, with Wrigley Field at full capacity.
