Chicago Cubs: Willson Contreras’ historical tear is powering the club
Willson Contreras has been a major contributor to the Chicago Cubs recent success. His offensive ability has finally started to catch up to his defensive prowess.
The Chicago Cubs were struggling. They lost their first first five games of May. Sure, it’s still so early in the season, but this is a team that started slowly last season and has extremely high expectations once again. So, when the offense was struggling to hit, despite bringing in one of the best hitting coaches in baseball, Chili Davis, it certainly was frustrating.
When the Cubs were swept about a week ago by the St. Louis Cardinals, catcher Willson Contreras went 1 for 15 in the series. Contreras is one of the emotional leaders of the team and his bat is definitely counted upon in this lineup.
Enter the Miami Marlins who traveled to Chicago to face the Cubs for a three game series. Well, it turns out the Marlins are just what the Cubs needed. The Cubs swept Miami, while scoring 31 runs over three games.
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In the middle of it all was Contreras, who started to put it all together in that series. He went 4 for 10, which included two triples in one game. Then, Contreras kept it going in the past two games against the Chicago White Sox.
On Friday, he went 4 for 5 with two home runs and seven RBI (on his bobble-head day, no less)! On Saturday, Contreras went 3 for 5 with a home run and 3 RBI.
According to Elias, Willson Contreras is the first Cub since Sammy Sosa in 2002 to compile at least 6 hits and 10 RBI in the span of 2 games (He has 7 hits). His 10 runs driven in are 1 more than he had all season.. In total, he has 26 total bases over... https://t.co/wGFEHyz4xm
— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) May 12, 2018
This has brought his season averages up to a .281 BA (.352 OBP) with 4 home runs and 19 RBI.
Willson Contreras is now hitting .281/.352/.516 (.868 OPS).
— Tony Andracki (@TonyAndracki23) May 12, 2018
He woke up Wednesday morning with a .230/.315/.354 line (.669 OPS).
Sure, these may not be MVP numbers, but these numbers are likely to keep skyrocketing with the tear he’s on right now.
Next: Chicago Cubs: Javier Baez should be early favorite for NL MVP
We’ll see what fireworks he can bring in the series finale against the White Sox on Sunday.