After sweeping the series in walk-off fashion against the Washington Nationals, the Chicago Cubs now boast a 24-6 record, the best in the Major Leagues. The team is riding a seven game winning streak into a series against the lowly San Diego Padres, and show no signs of slowing down. The club is on pace to win 129 regular season games (out of 162), which would beat the previous MLB record of 116—held by the 2001 Seattle Mariners—by thirteen games. While it would be difficult for the team to keep producing wins at such a torrid pace, the Cubs only have to be 4 games over .500 each of the last five months to win 100 games.
Last year, the Cubs exceeded expectations, reaching the National League Championship Series and winning over 100 games including the playoffs. Many Cubs fans, myself included, claimed at the beginning of last season that we would be perfectly happy with a record above .500 (82 wins). Chicago opened this season as World Series favorites, but has somehow managed to exceed expectations yet again, even without Kyle Schwarber.
How have they done it? Without getting into too much detail, the answer has been solid pitching and an absolutely electric offense. Cubs pitchers have thrown their way to a 2.53 ERA thus far, tops in the majors. In addition, their run differential stands at +102. The New York Mets have the second best run differential, with +43. Through thirty games, the Chicago Cubs have averaged scoring 3.4 runs more than their opponents. The statistics the Cubs have strewn together are nothing short of absurd, and their success has brought life to America’s once-fabled pastime, unseating Bryce Harper on his quest to make baseball fun again.
Before the season began, Bryce Harper, believed by many to be the future of baseball, told ESPN that he wanted to infuse the sport with joy. He even went so far as to create hats with the “Make Baseball Fun Again” slogan, piggybacking on Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” caps. This year, Harper has ‘sputtered’ (by the standard expected of him) to a .265 batting average, but has been an integral part in the Nationals’ hot start with 10 home runs and 27 RBI. That is, until they got swept by the Cubs.
In the Cubs-Nationals series, Cubs manager Joe Maddon simply did not give Harper the chance to liven up the sport. During the four-game series, the Cubs walked Harper 13 times, taking one of the league’s most dangerous bats out of the lineup for the entire series. All told, Bryce Harper has not swung at the last 36 pitches that Cubs pitchers have thrown him, and in 27 pitches faced today, only two were called strikes. The team historically known as the lovable losers have been winning by any means necessary this year, and I cannot wait to watch the rest of the season unfold. Buckle up, it will be one wildly entertaining ride!
