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Going into their home series against the first place New York Mets, the Chicago Cubs were losers of five out of their last seven and had fallen all the way back to .500 at 15-15. After their four-game series with the Mets, they have now won four straight. Their four-game sweep of New York was their most impressive feat this season and had them looking like real contenders.
There are a few reasons this series as a whole made the Cubs look like contenders in the National League.
They came from behind:
In the final two games of the series, the Cubs found themselves with their backs up against the wall and found ways to win. In Game 3 of the series, pitcher Matt Harvey dominated all game long and took a 1-0 lead into the eighth. However, the Cubs scratched across a run in the eighth and then won the game with a bases-loaded walk in the ninth.
In Game 4, the team trailed 5-1 in the fifth inning and they could have easily laid down and settled for winning three out of four in the series, but they didn’t do that. Instead, they stormed back for four runs in the fifth to tie the score. Then, they scored on a wild pitch later in the game and held on to win 6-5.
Playoff teams come from behind and win ball games. That’s exactly what the Cubs did this week against the Mets and it was the most impressive stretch this young team has had so far this season.
They won close games:
In the playoffs and during the playoff push, teams that can win close games go deep into October. Well, in this series, three of the four games were decided by one run and the Cubs won every one of those games. When you’re evenly matched with a team, as you so often are in the playoffs, winning close games is what separates teams.
Constantly winning close games also gives a team confidence because even when they’re losing, they know they always have a chance to pull a game out.
Their bullpen got it done:
After getting off to a rocky start this season, the bullpen really stepped up in this series. They didn’t give up a single run in all four games. In Games 2 and 3, the starting pitching majorly helped them out. Both Jake Arrieta and Jason Hammel worked eight solid innings, enabling the bullpen to rest.
When the bullpen was needed (for three innings in Game 1 and four innings in Game 2), they really stepped up and kept the Cubs in games. That’s what enabled the team to come back and win two of the four contests.
With all of this extra rest, the bullpen should be fresh and could really improve as the season continues.
We’re far from October, but the once lowly Cubs are suddenly looking like they deserve to be playing baseball in the fall. Only time will tell if they end up there, but all of the elements of a playoff team are already in Chicago.
