Ostrowski: Cubs' schedule only looking better from here on out
A lucky break for the Cubs with a few more to come.
The Washington Nationals are in town, a team that ran away from the rest of the National League East early in the season and has the third best record in baseball. But lucky to play them?
Well, the Cubs managed to avoid the Nationals' top three starting pitchers — the only hurlers on Washington's roster that strike any sort of fear into their opponents.
Two-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer pitches on Monday. Surprise, surprise. Three-time All-Star Stephen Strasburg is on the DL. Gio Gonzalez's 2.66 ERA is 3rd best in MLB, behind Clayton Kershaw's 2.04 and Scherzer's 2.21. Gonzalez is on paternity leave.
Instead, the Cubs faced Edwin Jackson on Saturday and get Erick Fedde on Sunday. Since Theo Epstein and company released Jackson two years ago, he's been with five different teams. Fedde is Washington's top pitching prospect, but was lit up for 7 runs on 10 hits in his major league debut last Sunday.
Starting on Monday, 40 of the Cubs' final 52 games will be against teams currently below .500. Nearly one-third of their remaining schedule is filled with the three worst teams in the National League, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Cincinnati.
The Cubs' strength of schedule is the second easiest in MLB. They are 41-26 against teams at or below .500 compared to 17-25 against teams at or above .500.
There is only one series left for the Cubs against a team with a better record. It will be out of the way after they go to Arizona next weekend. Meanwhile, the Brewers have 17 more games with the top five NL teams.
Yeah, the Cubs only had a half-game lead on Milwaukee heading into the weekend. But with the much easier schedule and better roster, it makes perfect sense for Fangraphs to give the north siders an 88-percent chance of winning the NL Central and project them to take it by seven games.
Addison Russell was placed on the disabled list on Friday, but he's all alone. This is as healthy as the team has been for much of the year. It's also the most talented they've been all year with the recent additions of Jose Quintana, Justin Wilson, and Alex Avila.
Alice in Chains is playing “No Excuses” in the background.
• Joe Ostrowski is a co-host of the “Hit & Run” baseball show from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on WSCR 670-AM The Score with Barry Rozner. Follow him on Twitter@JoeO670.