After punishing the Cardinals last weekend, the Chicago Cubs won a series from the Minnesota Twins to edge closer into the already-crowded National League wild card race.
The Cubs have gone 18-12 since the Fourth of July to make the chase a bit more interesting.
“We’re just getting contributions from nine guys right now on any given day,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “And that makes all the difference in the world, I think. It allows you to be consistent, which I think we’ve done a pretty good job of these past couple weeks. It’s the key to this team being good offensively.”
’s Bradford Doolittle wasn’t optimistic about the Small Bears with his recent assessment:
The Cubs added, subtracted and held steady all at once at the deadline, depending on which position group you're looking at. The biggest addition was a new regular third baseman in Issac Parades, while the biggest subtraction was reliever Mark Leiter Jr. The pitching staff still has a small army on the IL, which tempers enthusiasm for a spirited stretch run that would flip a disappointing season. Yet there is something in the "disappointing" label, too. You can't be a disappointment if no one expected anything out of you. The Cubs rank 27th in park-adjusted scoring this season, and the position players are 20th in bWAR as a group. The going-forward forecast at FanGraphs is 11th. If the Cubs start meeting the forecast, that's what positive regression looks like. At this point, though, it probably wouldn't be enough.
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But that offense has made strides since July 4 while averaging 4.6 runs per game, up from their season average of 3.5 runs
notes that the bottom third of the North Siders batting order has powered that improvement. While the Nos. 7 through 9 hitters have posted a .629 OPS overall this season, that number is .752 since July 10.
“It’s been a lot of guys that have kind of picked their years up and kind of got it going,” said outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong, who posted a.317/.333/.488 slash line with three doubles and two triples in his last 12 games.
“It’s at the right time, because we’ve still got 45 left and we’re only getting better as the season goes. And I think that’s such a promising thing, being able to pick it up when the months are starting to get harder.”
Shortstop Dansby Swanson has posted a 326/.379/.430 slash line with six extra-base hits in a 25-game span. Catcher Miguel Amaya has a .298/.365/.468 slash line in his last 18 games.
So Counsell’s team is still hanging around. That's one more thing for Cardinal fans to fret about.
TALKIN’ BASEBALL
Here is what folks are writing about Our National Pastime:
Bradford Doolittle, : “There's been a lot going on in Ƶ. The Cardinals added with aplomb at the deadline, bringing in stud starter Erick Fedde and old favorite Tommy Pham. Pham proceeded to hit a grand slam in his first at-bat as a Cardinal since 2018, an interim that saw him play for seven other teams and become an Immaculate Grid darling. Nevertheless, Ƶ has struggled over the past two weeks and fallen back in the wild-card chase even as some of its chief competitors have caught fire. The bottom line for the 2024 Redbirds has never wavered: This is not a roster built to withstand blasé seasons from either Goldschmidt or Arenado, but that's exactly what they've gotten from both. If that doesn't change, and soon, the Cardinals are more likely to sink than soar.”
Stephen J. Nesbitt, The Athletic: “The Pirates seem to have taken the ‘meaningful step forward’ owner Bob Nutting was expecting this season. They are 56-55 and remain in the thick of the National League wild-card race. They are baseball’s must-watch team every fifth day when rookie phenom Paul Skenes — All-Star starter, Cy Young contender, 22-year-old owner of a 1.99 ERA — takes the ball. For the first time in Ben Cherington’s five-year tenure as general manager, the Pirates were trade-deadline buyers and entered August as a contender. Playing meaningful baseball into the season’s stretch run is an important step, but it also intensifies scrutiny. The Pirates are in a brutal part of the schedule. Each opponent from July 19 to Aug. 18 currently holds a playoff spot or is ahead of Pittsburgh in the wild-card standings. Though the Pirates had a winning record, 8-7, against the Phillis, Cardinals, Astros and Diamondbacks, five losses — including three in the past four games — were by one run. Back breakers. After shortstop Oneil Cruz’s three errors gave away a game in Houston, the bullpen blew two leads against Arizona, spoiling McCutchen’s mad dash Friday and Skenes’ start Sunday.”
Jason Owens, Yahoo! Sports: “Chicago's losing streak entailed being on the wrong end of six series sweeps. Four of those series were against teams in position to make the postseason (Twins, Mariners, two against the Royals). A series against the last-place A's, who boast the second-worst record in the AL behind the White Sox, turned out to be just what Chicago needed to end the streak. The White Sox are still on pace to record one of the worst seasons in baseball history. A previous 24-game losing streak that concluded in June helped ensure that. With Tuesday's win, the White Sox improved to 28-88 (.241). That leaves them 41 games out of first place in the AL Central and 26.5 games behind the next-worst team in the division, the Detroit Tigers. Their minus-241 run differential is 70 runs worse than the next-worst team in baseball, a 42-72 (.368) Colorado Rockies team that boasts a minus-177 run differential. The 1916 Philadelphia Athletics (36-117, .235) are the worst team in terms of win percentage in MLB’s modern era. The expansion 1962 New York Mets, who played eight more games than the 1916 Athletics, hold the record for most single-season losses in the modern era, with a 40-120-1 (.248) finish. Both of those records are very much in striking distance for the White Sox.”
Patrick Dubuque, Baseball Prospectus: “Perhaps the most damning thing one could say about the 2024 White Sox, in a list that includes literally every statistical description one could generate, is how utterly unsympathetic they are as a ballclub. It’s partially due to the lack of surprise outside of Garrett Crochet and Erick Fedde—even Luis Robert appears painfully mortal—but most of the guilt goes to the franchise itself, and the way that franchises behave in the modern age. There is no confusion, no innocence lost here. Perhaps the team wasn’t supposed to be this bad—no team is supposed to be this bad, especially when they can’t pick higher than 10th in next year’s draft—but no one could pretend this was anything but a cardboard facade of a ballclub, a collection of lazy cliches and low-effort falsehoods about pluck and determination. It’s not that there’s no pathos; poor Miguel Vargas has to feel like a political prisoner right now. But the White Sox are essentially a plague ship, one to be pitied from afar. The behavior of its ownership and the clumsiness of its management, combined with the chance to see history, made the majority of the baseball world root for the Oakland Athletics one last time.”
Gabe Lacques, USA Today: “His accomplishments are already august enough: (Blake) Snell is one of just seven players to win a Cy Young Award in both the American and National leagues. He’s pitched in a World Series, been an All-Star, won a pair of ERA titles, is guaranteed more than $110 million in career earnings. Yet shaking perceptions and trying to forge his own reality has dogged Snell during his decade in the major leagues. It emerges in the game’s ultimate currency, when the winter after his second Cy Young Award did not yield contract offers befitting a franchise pitcher, forcing Snell to accept a two-year guarantee and a $32 million salary this year from the Giants, essentially an industrywide show-me contract. And it emerges from the game’s punditry and fans, still viewing Snell through a ‘five and dive’ prism, that he lacks the efficiency to pitch deep into games, that his lingering career image was that of a lefty yanked by manager Kevin Cash, during the decisive Game 6 of the 2020 World Series after 5 ⅓ innings and just 73 pitches. And it is why Friday night and the four starts that preceded it are so significant. Snell had never completed eight innings, never seen the ninth, had a big career goose egg in the “CG” column when he climbed the hill against the Cincinnati Reds. He proceeded to throw 114 almost uniformly exquisite pitches and toss a no-hitter, sailing past career markers, etching his name in the game’s lore and concluding one of the most dominant months in recent history.”
Will Leitch, : “Outfielder Anthony Santander also has an expiring contract, but the Orioles have a lot of their postseason hopes riding on (Corbin) Burnes, who was acquired from the Brewers last offseason despite the potential that he would be a one-year rental. It’s working out well so far, and Burnes will have a chance to make himself a lot more money this October.”
Mike Axisa, : “The A's are still quite bad but not the total pushover they were last year. They'll match last season's win total (50) within the next week or so, and there are some promising players on the roster. Brent Rooker is a legitimate middle of the order masher. JJ Bleday seems to be finding himself as a big leaguer. Mason Miler is an absolute star in the late innings. Then there's outfielder Lawrence Butler, who took a .248/.313/.479 batting line into Tuesday's game. Butler, who turned 24 in July, made the Opening Day roster, then was demoted to Triple-A with a .179/.281/.274 line and two homers in mid-May. He returned in mid-June, and since the start of July, he's hit an incredible .337/.384/.750 with 11 home runs.”
MEGAPHONE
“That kid is special. He's special. The way he conducts himself, the way he plays the game is a joy from our dugout. I hate it, but I love it.”
Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora, on emerging Kansas City Royals superstar Bobby Witt Jr.