Chicago Cubs: Team makes resounding statement with sweep over PIT

The Chicago Cubs needed to come out of the All-Star break firing on all cylinders and made a big statement by sweeping the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Chicago Cubs limped their way into the All-Star break losing 12 of their final 20 games. Three of those losses came at the hands of the Pittsburgh Pirates with the Cubs salvaging the four-game series finale. Clinging to just a half game lead over the Milwaukee Brewers, it was critical for the Cubs to have a strong showing in the first series back against the Pirates.

They did exactly that on their way to sweeping their division rivals. The Pirates were one of the hottest teams in baseball going into the break led by National League RBI leader, Josh Bell. They were also getting terrific starting pitching as well but the Cubs got the better of them in this series.

Yu Darvish, who has had an up-and-down career in a Cubs uniform so far, turned in arguably his best start in the series opener on Friday. Darvish and Pirates starter, Chris Archer, both tossed 6.0 innings in what was mostly a pitcher’s duel. However, Darvish was untouched for any runs while striking out 8 batters.

Archer struck out 10 batters, but the Cubs got to him in his final inning of work for 3 runs including a Kris Bryant solo home run to get the Cubs on the board first. Pedro Strop gave up a game-tying three-run homer to Starling Marte, but Jason Heyward gave the Cubs the lead in the bottom half of the eighth inning and Craig Kimbrel locked down his third save.

Flash forward to game 2 and the Cubs’ bats broke out in the big way. They jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the fourth inning backed by a Willson Contreras three-run homer in the second inning and a Jon Lester solo shot in the fourth inning. Lester would cruise for 6.2 innings, allowing 3 earned runs while striking out 6 batters.

In the series finale, Robel Garcia got the scoring started with an RBI double in the second inning that salvaged a run after Heyward grounded into a double play. The Pirates answered with 3 runs of their own, but that would be all they could muster and allowed the Cubs to chip away. After Jose Quintana and Victor Caratini had an RBI single and sacrifice fly, respectively, Jason Heyward hit a no-doubt two-run bomb to the right field bleachers in the 5th inning.

The Cubs would keep the scoring going in the sixth inning with a pinch-hit Albert Almora bomb to left field followed by a Kyle Schwarber shot to right field. Anthony Rizzo would add an RBI sac fly to give the Cubs their eighth run. Jose Quintana was good, not great, tossing 6.0 innings with 4 strikeouts, 2 walks and 3 earned runs.

Knocking guys in with RISP was a big issue for the Cubs offense in the first half of the season, but they answered the bell in this first series converting 10-of-23 in such scenarios. They got a really nice contribution from Heyward in this series, who went 6-for-13 and is now batting 0.275 with an 0.833 OPS on the season.

Having Heyward as a legit threat is an invaluable piece of this offense and is exactly what the Cubs paid him to be. It appears he’s finally starting to become that player. With the Milwaukee Brewers still scuffling, this was the perfect opportunity for the Cubs to begin their second-half run and they have already extended their lead in the NL Central to 2.5 games.

Next up the Cubs will have to face a team they cannot seem to beat lately in the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds have taken all three series so far in 2019, but the Cubs are hoping for similar results as this Pirates series. They’ll get things started on Monday night with Kyle Hendricks on the bump against one of the best pitchers in the game in Luis Castillo.