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Chicago Cubs’ Highs And Lows Of The First Half

By Carlos Nazario

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Jul 8, 2015; Chicago, IL, USA; St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Jhonny Peralta celebrates after hitting a two run home run in the ninth inning against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Those $#@&% Cardinals

In order to win the National League Central, the Cubs have to get past their nemesis, the hated St. Louis Cardinals.

That has not been very easy to do this season.

The Cubs started out losing eight of their first ten games against the Cardinals. At the end of the first half, they are 4-9 against them.

What is more heartbreaking is that except for one blowout, the Cubs have been in every game, but one way or another, the Cardinals made the key plays to win.

On June 26, the Cubs were winning 2-1 in the eighth and the Cardinals could not get any offense going. Then light-hitting Greg Garcia, with no career home runs in 24 games, stepped up against Pedro Strop and promptly lined a home run over the center field wall. The game went into the tenth inning, where the Cubs failed to get the key hit with a runner in scoring position, and the Cardinals did to walk off with the victory.

Speaking of Strop, he’s had a pretty good season. He has a 3.03 ERA and a 0.93 WHIP. He’s allowed a total of 13 earned runs the entire first half. Not bad, except seven of them came against the Cardinals. Twice he’s been the victim of late inning heroics against them.

The second time Strop gave up a big home run to the Cardinals, is was a real back breaker. In fact, it was one of those downers that could sent a team into a tailspin.

The Cubs had a chance to cut the Cardinals’ lead down to 7.5 games by winning three out of four in the series last week. They just swept them in a double-header the previous day, and they seemed to have some momentum going into the break. Instead, Jhonny Peralta hits a big homer in the ninth to give the Cardinals another win.

The Cubs ended up losing the next two games also, against the White Sox, but a brilliant performance by Jake Arrieta last Sunday and stopped the bleeding.

The Cubs have six more games against the Cardinals, three in St. Louis (September 7-9) and three in Chicago (September 18-20). They will need to figure out a way to beat them if they want to be considered a real playoff threat. Even if they get into the playoffs, they may eventually need to face the Cardinals, so they need to feel they can beat them. Unless they do, it’s “Wait till next year” again.

There have been more ups than downs for the Cubs in the first half. They are, after all, holding a Wild Card spot, and that is great for a team that has finished last in their division for five straight seasons.

There is still much work to be done to keep up the positives the team racked up. Let’s see what the trade deadline brings and then take a ride on the Chicago Cubs roller coaster of a season.

Next: Chicago Cubs Trade Rumors: Execs Expect Team To Make A Run At Justin Upton

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