Chicago Cubs sweep Giants, keep rolling right along
If you're aboard the Cubs Express, you might want to ask your conductor to check his pocket watch and timetable.
Your train might be arriving a little early.
At least the Cubs think so.
After Sunday's 2-0 victory over the Giants at Wrigley Field, how could they not?
Hector Rondon came in to close out 2-run lead in the ninth, and he promptly loaded the bases with nobody out. Instead of a train wreck of an inning, Rondon bore down and struck out Hector Sanchez, Angel Pagan and Gregor Blanco to save the game for starting pitcher Jake Arrieta, who worked 7⅔ brilliant innings.
The victory gave the Cubs a four-game sweep of the series and a 3½-game lead in the race for the second wild-card spot in the National League.
The Cubs just might be fast-tracking their narrative, the one that has said they're a “year early” when it comes to contending for postseason play.
Is this team ready to win now, especially after sweeping the defending world champions and posting victories in 10 of their last 11 games?
“I think we have been ready,” said Arrieta, who improved to 13-6 with a 2.38 ERA. “I think it was a matter of figuring out necessarily how to do that, how to close out a series when we have things in our favor. I feel like in the past at times we maybe let a game like that slip away, which from time to time over 162, that's going to happen.
“If you have the opportunity, you have to close those out.”
The Cubs are 62-48 and are at least 14 games over .500 for the first time since the end of the 2008 season, when they finished 97-64.
They're in a good spot, even with almost two months of baseball left and with a team loaded with young and inexperienced players.
Manager Joe Maddon said he gets why people are saying that even if the Cubs fall short, they'll be a “nice story” because they contended most of the year.
“The nice story would be that we get to the playoffs and we're very successful in the playoffs,” Maddon said. “That would be the really nice story. I understand what everybody is saying. In a sense, that is true.
“But why would you want to be satisfied with that? When you get to this particular juncture and you're seeing our guys are maturing on the major-league stage right now, let's just keep it rolling.”
In addition to Sunday's 2-0 score, the Cubs beat the Giants 8-6 on Saturday, 7-3 Friday and 5-4 Thursday. The two teams will meet in San Francisco Aug. 25-27. Maddon was saying nothing to give them any bulletin-board material.
“They're good,” he said. “They're really good. That's what makes this an impressive four games for us, the fact that we played against such a good team.
“They do have a heart of a champion. You saw they battled in the last inning. I expected that. Championship teams will normally show you that the next season or the next two or three seasons following.
“Once you learn how to do it, it never goes away. I have a lot of respect for how they go about their business.”
The Cubs put across single runs in each of the first two innings. Kris Bryant blooped an RBI single to right field in the first to score Kyle Schwarber, who walked with one out. In the second, Arrieta hit a one-out triple off the wall in right field and scored on Addison Russell's sacrifice fly.
Arrieta gave up 4 hits while walking two and striking out six. Justin Grimm relieved him in the eighth after a two-out single. Grimm gave up a hit but retired Hunter Pence on a long flyout.
In the ninth, Rondon gave up a single to Brandon Belt and a double to Crawford before hitting pinch hitter Hector Sanchez with a pitch. But after that, it was three strikes three times, and the Giants were out.
“It was more like make a pitch and try to get a groundball for a double play,” said Rondon, who earned his 19th save. “If they make 1 run, we're fine. We're still in the game. They always look to me for fastballs, but I made a lot of good breaking balls.”