Magic number: 24 (and there’s so much more).
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It was on display when the Chicago Cubs beat the San Diego Padres 6-3 to complete a three-game sweep on Wednesday.
The NL Central-leading Cubs have won six of their last eight games and 20 of 25.
“They’re good”, Green said after dropping a season-high 21 games under.500.
“I just try to go pitch and do a good job”, he said. He hit his eighth homer of the season off Hand, going the opposite way with a 379-foot drive into the right field stands.The Padres pulled to within three runs of the Cubs in the bottom of the eighth when Trevor Cahill issued a two-out walk to Dickerson and Schimpf followed with a RBI double.NOTES: The sweep of the Padres improved the Cubs’ August record to 18-4. Hendricks is 2-0 with one shutout, a 1.26 ERA and a 0.80 WHIP in four career starts against San Diego, including a no-decision May 11 in which he yielded three runs – two earned – and six hits over 6 2/3 innings.Clemens will be making his fifth consecutive start and sixth in 10 appearances since being acquired from Miami.
Arrieta won for the fourth straight start.
Edwin Jackson (3-4) gave up five runs and seven hits in five innings. Left-handed closer Aroldis Chapman picked up his second save in as many games, giving him nine with Chicago and 29 on the season.The Cubs started the game as if it were going to be a blitz.Dexter Fowler opened the game with a double to right center. Justin Grimm, the first of three relievers, came on and allowed a run on a wild pitch when striking out Ryan Schimpf. That’s now 84 runs scored in the first inning this year; the 0.67 ratio (84 first-inning runs in 126 games) ranks sixth in Major League Baseball, but is a significant improvement over last year’s 0.55. In fact, they’ve done better doing this in road games (0.71) than home games (0.59).
That brought Ben Zobrist to the plate, and he smashed a tripled into center field that scored both runners and put the Cubs up 2-0 (+.133). Travis Jankowski singled to lead off the Padres fourth and scored on a triple by Wil Myers, putting the tying run on third with none out.
The Cubs caught a break that helped produce their next two runs. Russell capped a three-run fifth with a two-run homer. Padres’ 2B prospect Luis Urias, 19, was named both the MVP and the Rookie of the Year in the Advanced Single-A California League. That seems like a hometown scorer trying to protect his pitcher.
He also got two hits himself. The left-hander has not allowed an earned run in 43 games since May 5. That’s a pace for a run differential of +280, and the team run total is now 647, or 5.13 per game. That’s a pace for 832 runs for the season, which would be the most since 2008 (855) and just the third time since 1937 that any Cubs team would post 800 or more runs in a season (806 in 1970 is the other).
More importantly, check out following short video of a Cubs fan goes bonkers after the homer.
“We find a way to get a couple guys out in the first, we’ve got a good shot to win the game today”.
And, the 81st win of the season assured the Cubs of a non-losing year for the second straight year, though a winning season in 2016 was really never in doubt from the middle of April on.
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Cubs: LHP Mike Montgomery (1-1, 2.77) starts Friday in the opener of a three-game series at Dodger Stadium. 1B Anthony Rizzo didn’t start for the Cubs Wednesday afternoon as a regularly-scheduled day off.
