The Cubs plan to officially celebrate their title Friday after their game against the Brewers, and aren’t about to apologize for not winning Thursday night. The team released a new ad overnight that shows the “W” flag being flown around the world.
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“When you really look at how young players perform, I know you guys probably roll your eyes when we said it wasn’t linear a million times”, general manager Jed Hoyer said. Next up, they begin an 11-game trip – their longest of the season – to Boston, Tampa Bay and Toronto.
Now the Cubs focus turns to the best record in the National League so the team can have home field advantage should they make the League Championship Series. The Cubs’ first division title since 2008 was months in the making and has felt “inevitable” since their incredible 25-6 start. “I don’t think we have any weaknesses on the bench”.
If you’ve got the talent, hey, might as well flaunt it.
Friday, “We Are Good” felt like a cheeky understatement, a far cry from last season’s aspirational tinge. Relief pitchers Travis Wood, Justin Grimm, Trevor Cahill, and Mike Montgomery have all for the most part held their own this second half, as the Cubs wait for Pedro Strop to come back from the DL. They scored two in the ninth to force extra innings, then bam, they walked it off in the 10th. But Chris Coghlan and pinch-hitter Addison Russell each had an RBI single in the ninth for Chicago, and Montero connected for a leadoff drive in the 10th against Blaine Boyer (2-4). A brutal error by Chris Carter allowed Tommy La Stella to reach base and move Coghlan to second, and then Torres plunked Munenori Kawasaki to load the bases. That’s a swinging strike rate of 22.4 percent. They had a chance to wrap it up in front of their delirious fans at Wrigley Field earlier Thursday, but Scooter Gennett’s tiebreaking two-run double in the seventh lifted Milwaukee to a 5-4 win. Broxton suffered the injury colliding with the wall in left-center in the third inning. It has not been a bad year of baseball for Chicago to say the very least. “As soon as I hit, I knew my wrist was broken”.
Now that the Chicago Cubs have “backed in” to the Major League Baseball playoffs, who are the other teams to get in as the race for October heats up?
Brewers starter Chase Anderson cruised through the first four innings, allowing only a single and pair of walks.
Arrieta hasn’t had his best stuff in his last three outings, but he was able to grind out a win Sunday at Houston, giving up three runs and four hits over 5 1/3 innings.
“I feel great. There are no curses, but they still have to play good ball”, said fan Steven Pulio. Beyond that, the bullpen, just to work them no more than two days in a row, probably. Ryan Braun’s team-leading 28th homer of the season gave the Brewers a 2-0 lead in the third. Chicago banged out eleven hits and walked four times with Albert Almora Jr. going deep and driving in two with Miguel Montero going solo as the Cubs scored two in the 9th and once in the 10th.
The Chicago Cubs have won the NL Central, becoming the first major league team this season to clinch a division title when St. Louis lost 6-2 at San Francisco.
NOTES: Brewers RHP Michael Blazek threw a simulated game on Thursday and will try another next week at home. A typical recovery time from that can span somewhere in the range of 4+ weeks, which would pretty much end Captain Kirk’s first season in Milwaukee, as well.
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If the Cubs hold on to the best record in the entire National League, they will host the victor of the Wild Card matchup in Game 1 of the National League Division Series and have home-field advantage in the best-of-five matchup. Running laps around the league this season, in which they led the NL Central wire-to-wire, the Cubs proved many times over that they were going to kick ass and chew David’s, and they’re all out of sunflower seeds.
