If you look too hard at history, there’s plenty of reason for concern when considering the defending World Series Champion Chicago Cubs and their chances to repeat in 2017. Only two teams in Major League Baseball’s modern era have opened June with a losing record and still won a title, the 1991 Minnesota Twins and the 2003 Florida Marlins.
But the Cubs have already made history their bitch once and got a ring for their troubles and they weren’t just beating statistics with their 2016 title run. They had to overcome a curse. There was a goat and everything. That usually never ends well.
So let’s look at the bright side. First, hey, congratulations Cubbies on stopping your six-game skid Friday with your 3-2 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. The beauty of that one is two-fold. First, Chicago erased an early 2-o deficit over the final six innings, scraping their way back into the game with a solo home run from Kris Bryant in the third, then tying the game on an RBI double from Jason Heyward in the sixth. Heyward put Chicago ahead for good in the bottom of the eighth with a sac fly that brought in Anthony Rizzo on the same day the team was celebrating his engagement to Chicago-based real estate broker Emily Vakos.
Check, please.
Final: #Cubs 3, @Cardinals 2. #W pic.twitter.com/4skCsLjXSK
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) June 2, 2017
While John Lackey gave up two runs early, the Cubs got seven solid innings out of him with four hits, two runs, two walks and a strikeout, though he did serve up a home run to former Cub Dexter Fowler to open up the game. C.J. Edwards and Pedro Strop kept the door shut, with Strop pocketing his first win of the season. Wade Davis dead-bolted it in the ninth, picking up his 11th save.
That’s how it’s supposed to work and now all the Cubs need to do to get history back on their side is win 15 consecutive games like the Twins did to open their own June in 1991.
The second most important fact, after the win, is it keeps the Cubs within easy striking distance of National League Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers. No team in the Central is running away with this thing yet. Chicago is just two games back and they picked up a game on the second place Cardinals with the win. The Brewers even helped out, dropping a 2-1 game to the Dodgers.
The best fans in baseball welcome @DexterFowler back to the Friendly Confines.
Could've done without the bleacher souvenir though. pic.twitter.com/AyCAXAOR91
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) June 2, 2017
Chicago has two more against St. Louis starting today at 2:20 p.m. EST at Wrigley Field, then finish up the three-game series on ESPN Sunday night at 7:30 p.m. EST. Sweep these games and the Cubs are all alone in second place. Hell, if the Dodgers stay hot and deliver a couple more beat downs to the Brewers this weekend, the Cubs could be sitting in a tie for first and the crisis would all but already be averted.
It’s the lineup and their lack of big-time production at the plate that’s been the problem so far, but it’s one that’s solvable. Chicago took a quick step to add another solid bat to the line up calling up Ian Happ on May 13. Bryant remains one of the best players in the universe and it doesn’t seem likely that Rizzo, Ben Zobrist and Kyle Schwarber all stay on the schneid. There’s a whole half season-plus of baseball left.
https://twitter.com/BrendanDzw/status/870750326638432258
The upcoming schedule should provide a boost, with three games against the Marlins before a potential playoff preview series hosting the Colorado Rockies. After the Rockies, Chicago has series against the New York Mets, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the San Diego Padres, then the Marlins again. All those teams have losing records and little hope of turning it around.
All that should have their record nice and fat for a National League Championship series preview in a four-game stint at the Washington Nationals to wrap up the month.
It all begins today with Jon Lester (3-3, 3.86 E.R.A) on the mound. Lester got chased out of his last start after just 3 1/3 innings, but he hasn’t lost at home in 2017. He’ll face off against the Cardinals’ Mike Leak (5-3, 2.24 E.R.A).
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