The Rundown: Cubs Win 8th Straight, Castro Gets 1st Start at 2nd Base, Edwin Jackson Signs with Braves
Will the Cubs ever lose again? I’m not so sure.
Everything is coming up Milhouse for the Cubs these days. Yesterday, they came back from two deficits to win their eighth in a row.
Starlin Castro got his first start at second base, and went 3-for-4 at the plate. The second base situation should be interesting to monitor throughout the remainder of the year.
Will Chris Coghlan get a majority of the time at second? Will Tommy La Stella or Javier Baez take over? Will the Cubs acquire Chase Utley? Maybe Castro will play his way into the starting job. That would definitely make for the best story line.
While there were a lot of positives yesterday, starter Kyle Hendricks was not one of them. He gave up five runs on eight hits in only 3.1 innings. He also walked three.
He didn’t seem himself right out of the gate. After the game, he admitted he was bad:
Kyle Hendricks: "Mechanically right now I'm terrible." Said it was all mechanics and not "stuff." #Cubs
— Bruce Miles (@BruceMiles2112) August 15, 2015
Luckily, the Cubs bullpen was on top of its game once again. Clayton Richard, Justin Grimm, Pedro Strop and Hector Rondon finished the game without allowing a run and giving up only two hits.
The Cubs have won 14 out of 15. They are 18 games over .500.
I have admittedly been about as optimistic of a Cubs fan as you can find for this season, but I never would have imagined them pulling off a hot streak of this magnitude. This is unbelievable.
Other notes
* Former Cub Edwin Jackson has signed with the Braves. He’ll be pitching out of their bullpen. Good to see him get another shot after being released by the Cubs earlier this year. Jackson actually wasn’t horrible as a reliever this year, but he definitely never lived up to expectations with the Cubs.
* It doesn’t sound like Neil Ramirez is getting any closer to returning to the Cubs, after being placed on the disabled list in late July with abdominal soreness. Sahadev Sharma says he doesn’t think Ramirez will be back for the Cubs’ stretch run. It has been a rough year for Ramirez, who has appeared in only 13 games for the Cubs due to injuries. It’s a big disappointment after being a lethal weapon out of the bullpen last season.
* Both the Cardinals and Pirates won last night, so the Cubs remain 1.5 games behind the Pirates and 7.5 games in back of St. Louis. The Giants won as well, and they remain 4.5 behind the Cubs.