.png)
German (DE) 
English (US) 
Spanish (ES) 
French (FR) 
Hindi (IN) 
Italian (IT) 
Russian (RU) 
1 hour ago
2
The Cubs edged closer to clinching both a postseason spot and the top wild-card spot by taking two of three from both the Braves and Rays over the week.
And they got some solid batting and pitching performances in those six games. Here’s who’s hot and not for the Cubs over the past week.
Nico Hoerner heads to .300
Nico has a nine-game hitting streak going, and over the six games against the Braves and Rays he batted .478/.520/.696 (11-for-23) with three doubles, a triple, three stolen bases and six runs scored. That makes him a candidate for NL Player of the Week honors. That’ll be announced later today.
Overall, he’s having his best MLB season. He’s currently at 6.0 bWAR, which ranks third in the NL behind Geraldo Perdomo and Shohei Ohtani.
Ian Happ continues to hit
As you know, Happ is a very, very streaky hitter. He can go cold for a month… and then go on a massive hot streak. He’s on one of the latter right now and the timing couldn’t be better. Over the six games Happ batted .333/.429/.667 (8-for-24) with two doubles, two home runs and four walks.
The Cubs might have found themselves a closer in Andrew Kittredge
Kittredge had a major meltdown in August against the Reds. Since then, in 16 appearances he has posted a 1.17 ERA and 0.587 WHIP with 21 strikeouts and only two walks in 15.1 innings, and converted three saves during the week, one vs. the Braves and in both wins over the Rays.
Pete Crow-Armstrong really, really needs a reset
PCA was elected to start the All-Star Game and since then his performance has been, to be charitable, pretty bad. In 49 games since the All-Star break he is batting .203/.262/.337 with just three home runs, and over the six games against the Braves and Rays he was 1-for-21 (!) with seven strikeouts.
Craig Counsell finally dropped PCA to sixth in the batting order Sunday. Honestly, he should bat eighth or ninth until he gets out of this funk.
Matt Shaw isn’t hitting, either
Shaw, as you know, came out of the All-Star break on a hitting tear. Lately, though, that’s stopped. Shaw was just 2-for-17 over the week, though he did have four RBI.
Shōta Imanaga’s ERA continues to rise
Imanaga posted a 4.91 ERA (six earned runs in 11 innings) over the week and allowed three home runs. The long ball has hurt him and particularly recently — 10 home runs in his last 44.2 innings, yikes.
The good news is that Shōta’s walk rate is outstanding. In those 44.2 innings he’s faced 168 batters and walked just six, and he issued no walks at all in the two starts this week.
If he can keep the ball in the ballpark, that will serve him well in the postseason.
Comments