Chicago Cubs News: Russell shines in weekend series against Rockies

For the second time and final time this season, the Colorado Rockies handed the Chicago Cubs a series loss. It was disappointing, to say the least, but there were a few positives that emerged from the weekend series.

First off, Mike Montgomery was absolutely lights out in his first start as a member of the Chicago Cubs. Not to mention, Trevor Cahill pitched pretty well and we’ll have more on these two later on this afternoon.

Other than Chicago’s pitching having a good outing prior to Jason Hammel‘s shaky start, one individual stepped up in a huge way. Last season, during a postseason run, shortstop Addison Russell suffered an injury.

As a result, the 22-year-old star missed the National League Championship Series and vowed to return stronger than ever. That is exactly what he did eclipsing his 2015 rookie totals, raising the bar for his future with the organization.

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Scary part about all this? We still have a good chunk of games left to play and pending an injury (knock on wood) Addison could receive some N.L. MVP votes at the end of the regular season.

Over the weekend, Joe Maddon‘s All-Star shortstop finished the three-game set 4-for-11 with three home runs, four RBI, and two walks. Addison enters tonight’s series opener in San Diego with 17 big flies, 78 RBI, 100 hits, and a batting line of .246/.335/.414.

In his first year with the Chicago Cubs, Russell ended the campaign went yard 13 times while driving in 54 runners with a clip of .242/.307/.389. Russell’s multi-home run game yesterday afternoon was his second of the season. His first of the year was against the Cincinnati Reds back on July 5th.

In fact, Sunday’s game brings his grand total up to three in his young major league career when it comes to multi-homer games. Surely, there will be more in the future and who knows. Maybe he’ll continue swinging a hot bat while visiting the Padres. Or the Los Angeles Dodgers, who knows at this point.

Next: Will Soler start in October for the Cubs?

Above all, and most importantly, the Chicago Cubs still have themselves a huge lead in the National League Central. Despite the St. Louis Cardinals shutting out the Philadelphia Phillies by the final score of 9-0.

Outside of the Cubs dropping another series to the Rockies, everything else is going well for this club. Jason Heyward should return to the lineup tomorrow with the rotation starting over with Jake Arrieta.