Chest
Chicago – The Cubs followed a historic day with a little more walking in the park.
The Cubs ran to an early advance and sailed the rest of the path, beating the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-2 in Wrigley Field on Saturday. The Cubs won the equality break of the season on Arizona, which could be important at the end of the season.
The Diamondbacks (12-9) finished a better match than the Cubs (14-9) in the 2023 national league ranking and held the equality break.
(Plus: Justin Steele’s injury update: Last on Cubs Lefty after elbow surgery)
Here are three dishes to take away victory:
Quick start
I had the impression that the cubs had resumed where they stopped on Friday.
The Cubs scored six points in the first two rounds of the Saturday competition and set up a quick advance. Unlike Friday, however, the wind was not screaming, so a five -point lead on Saturday was a little different from what she had done 24 hours ago.
Kyle Tucker started with a triple RBI in the first and scored on a simple Michael Busch. Miguel Amaya scored the next round on a TUCKER field, then Seiya Suzuki and Busch hit consecutive circuits to make the exclamation on quick start.
The Cubs offensive was heated in red this season. They entered the most points scored in baseball on Saturday and made an average of 6.2 points per game. Five withdrawals in Saturday’s match and they had equaled this number. Almost everyone in the click range. It certainly seems that the range no longer has free outings now and it allows the line to continue moving.
The offensive success helps to hide other areas of the team. The strengthening of the tracks and the work of long -rounds help to cover the enclosure of the lifts (which has been from top to bottom this season) and to allow the lifts to settle in their roles. A starter can be more aggressive and attack strikers.
Will Cubs be the best attack in baseball on a list of 162 games? Maybe. Maybe not. But the longer it is maintained, the more excited the cubs fans should become the potential of this long -term range.
The enclosure of lifters deeply hollows out
The Cubs enclosure has been taxed in the last six days.
They covered 20 rounds during the five previous games entering the Saturday competition against the Diamondbacks. During Friday’s historic victory against Arizona, manager Craig Counsell used seven lifts and six of their arms on the survey launched three times in the last six days. The right -hander Ethan Roberts launched four times during this period.
This is why Counsell tried to remove each possible from his starter, Ben Brown. The right -hander gave him 12 withdrawals on 100 locations – less than ideal.
Counsell turned to Caleb Thielbar – who faced two strikers on Friday – to cover two sleeves after Brown. Brad Keller launched a goalless seventh and Daniel Palencia has recovered the last six withdrawals.
The concern is not on Saturday, however. This is the effect to fall that will be felt on Sunday and the rest of the season. Lights generally do not launch three consecutive days and do not do so in April. Thus, the Cubs could play some arms in the final against the diamondbacks.
And Counsell does not want to use his readers at the start of the season. Ryan Pressly and Porter Hodge – his two best lever arms – had been used 10 times in the rhythm and were in rhythm for 73 appearances this season. It would almost be double the number of major league appearances that Hodge had in his campaign in 2024 and would represent the second most important appearances of the 13 -year career in Pressly. Two other readers – Thielbar and Julian Merryweather – had nine appearances that participated on Saturday and were in pace for 66 games launched, the second largest number of their careers.
Counsell does not want to run his readers in the ground early, not when they hope to play deeply in October. Starks and brown must give more length to the cubs, especially when the enclosure of the listers is gassed.
Inby day
The offense was heated red, we established it.
But not everyone has torn the baseball blanket.
Inby Swanson participated in the competition on Saturday by hitting .170 / .221 / .341 (.562 Ops).
“Inby is in slow start; it is not a bad thing if it is the only name I really say,” said Counsell before the match. “This means that we are in fairly good shape offensively.”
He was a little unlucky – his expected stick average was 80 points higher than his real average (0.250) and his percentage of expected typing was greater than 140 points (0.485).
Saturday’s performance is the guy and cubs can help put him back on the right track. It was 2 for 4 with a double in victory. As mentioned above, the CUBS offensive has hummed and the difficulties of a player can be hidden when those around him strike.
But that does not mean that the Cubs do not want him to come back on the right track. There will be points this season when others will be cold and Swanson could be the player who helps wear the offensive at that time.
