August 13, 2020: 1-2 Punch

12-3; best start in 50 years. Before that, it was 1907 when the Cubs started off this hot; that was a World Series championship year by the way. Who would have predicted this hot of a start for the Cubs? The better question: is this sustainable?

The Indians got the latest ass kicking the Cubs have been handing out. The 1-2 punch of Jon Lester and Kyle Hendricks really shut down the Tribe. This has been an ongoing theme, one of the main reasons for the early success. The Cubs starting pitching is among the best, if not THE best, in the league thus far. My concern about Lester going into the season is the 162 game grind. Being up there in age, how would he be able to hold up over the entirety of the season, which hopefully would include the postseason. Well, don’t have to worry about that any longer. This 60 game sprint may be perfect for Jon; it has been so far. Hendricks is always solid. Ross showed us all what he thought about Kyle by letting him start Opening Day AND letting him finish that 9 inning complete game shutout; in Kyle we trust. Not bad for the top of the rotation.

I already talked about the back end of the rotation with Chatwood and Mills. Will they be able to keep it up? Maybe, maybe not… Will the strength of our #4 & #5 pitcher make or break us? Well, the strength of the back end will increase when Mr. Quintana returns. I know he gets looked at a bit closer than others due to who we traded to get him, but he’s been fine; he hasn’t been great, but he’s been OK. I expect him to be good when he returns. This leaves the wild card of the bunch: Yu Darvish. HE is key to our success. We need him to be on top of his game, giving us that very solid 1, 2, 3 punch. We’ll see him again on Thursday night vs the Brewers.

On the topic of pitching, the bullpen has settled down, no? I really like the way Jeffress has looked; an ERA of 0.00 helps that appearance. I liked Rowan Wick since last year; he’s continued to pitch well this year. I know Ryan’s numbers don’t look good, but I still trust him. Sadler, Tepera, and now Rea (?) have all jumped into the mix. Looks like we may need another left hander at some point? Get on that Theo. The one guy that I haven’t mentioned is the multi million dollar man Kimbrel. 23.63 is the ERA there. And like the 4 and 5 starters, our success will not hinge on his success, yet it would be nice to get a solid contribution from him.

Pitching is streaky, especially the bullpen guys. After starting off badly, and not paying for it in the standings, they’ve gotten hot, and have helped sustain this great start. Surely they will go through another rough patch; we’d be very lucky to not be impacted in the standings again. Not going to worry about that right now. At this point, I’m just counting my blessings. Not only have we been rewarded with the return of baseball, we have been rewarded with a red-hot Cubs team, and like always, I’m just riding that wave baby. Go Cubs!!!