Chicago Cubs win and inch closer to first place of the NL Central

The Chicago Cubs came into the series finale with the Pittsburgh Pirates winners of the first two. They had a chance to sweep the Pirates who currently lead the National League Central.

With their ace Marcus Stroman on the mound, you had to like their chances of getting it done going into the game.

Of course, things didn’t start off all too well for them as the Pirates took a 2-0 lead early in the contest. Those two runs, however, would be all that Pittsburgh ended up getting in the game.

Stroman ended up going 6.0 innings where he only gave up those two runs on four hits and two walks. He had five strikeouts as well. His ERA is now down to 2.45 which is excellent.

The bullpen shut it down from there and the offense took over enough to earn the Cubs a sweep. They scored one run in the third to cut the deficit to one but then a big five-run fifth inning broke things open for them.  They added an extra in the sixth and won the game 7-2.

The Chicago Cubs pulled off a sweep over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday.

Nico Hoerner, Ian Happ, and Christopher Morel all had multi-hit games. Other studs like Dansby Swanson and Nick Madrigal had hits as well.

The most notable, however, might be Cody Bellinger who returned from injury and had a hit, a walk, a run scored, and an RBI. Getting him back was always going to be big for the Cubs and it paid off right away.

With this win, the Cubs inched closer to first place in the NL Central Division which is something that felt impossible before the series began.

After all that, they are now just 3.5 games back of the Pirates. The problem is now that the Milwaukee Brewers are just 0.5 back and the Cincinnati Reds are one game back.

All four of these teams feel like they have a chance to take it before the year is over. The Cubs are in the mix though and that was the goal coming into the season.

Things are only getting harder from here, however, as the Cubs are going to face the Baltimore Orioles at Wrigley Field this weekend. Baltimore is one of the most exciting young teams in Major League Baseball right now.

At 42-25, they feel like a legit threat to win the World Series right now. They reside in the ever-difficult AL East where every team is good.

Obviously, the Cubs will need to be at their best if they want to win this series. Kyle Hendriks is going to get the start in this one for the Cubs while Cole Irvin takes the mound for the Orioles.

To begin a tough series, the Cubs have the clear pitching advantage but everybody else needs to show up and play well otherwise they will lose. It should be a very fun series following a sweep over the team leading their division.