Cubs sweep the Nationals, improve to 24-6 - and look unstoppable
To say the Chicago Cubs are unstoppable would be technically inaccurate. They have lost six times in their first 30 games, after all, and 80% of this season still remains.
Yet even the most jaded Cubs fan could not be blamed if he or she wondered whether any force in the baseball world can slow this runaway train out of Wrigleyville.
Sunday, the Cubs capped off a stirring four-game sweep of the Washington Nationals by erasing a two-run deficit, getting eight scoreless innings from their bullpen and finally registering a 13-inning, 4-3 walk-off victory when Javier Baez slammed a home run into the Wrigley Field bleachers.
That gave the Cubs a 24-6 record, matching the greatest start in franchise history since 1907, when the club won the first of two consecutive World Series titles.
Still, it’s getting harder to deny something very special is afoot this year, championship or not.The Cubs have won nothing since, and even if they maintained their .800 winning percentage this season — that’d be a 132-30 mark — it would guarantee them nothing come October, when they must survive three rounds of playoffs to win their first championship in 108 years.
Sunday’s game certainly didn’t dampen that feeling.
Consider that when the Nationals arrived Thursday, they were 19-8 themselves, just 1 1/2 games worse than the Cubs. The notion of a May series being a “playoff preview” is typically folly, but the four-game set seemed at worst a significant measuring stick for both clubs. “To the last moment, everybody was there to win that game. And that’s a beautiful thing,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said.
After the Cubs won the first three games, a sweep seemed well in their grasp with reigning Cy Young Award winner Jake Arrieta, who hadn’t lost since July 25, on the mound. But Arrieta, 22-1 with a 0.85 ERA and two no-hitters in the last 11 months, was quite mortal, issuing four walks for the third time in four starts. He exited after five innings with a 3-1 deficit, the Cubs’ 19-game win streak in games he started in jeopardy.
Then came the seventh inning. Reliever Trevor Cahill, forced to bat because the bullpen was stretched thin, led off with an infield single. He’d eventually score on a game-tying Kris Bryant single and go on to pitch three scoreless innings.
By the 13th, Nationals manager Dusty Baker reluctantly turned to reliever Blake Treinen, who was working his fourth game in five days. Baez, good enough to start for most teams, but a spare part for the Cubs, this team, finally ended it.Adam Warren, Justin Grimm, and Travis Wood followed with five more scoreless frames, as the Cubs fervently avoided pitching to reigning NL MVP Bryce Harper, who reached base seven times without swinging the bat — six walks and a hit by pitch. “Honestly,” said Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo, “we ran out of things to talk about.”
“An incredible series,” Arrieta said. “And an incredible way to end it.”
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