Chicago Cubs are ready to battle against postseason aces in October

Over the past month, the offense has been less than stellar. But, fear not – the Chicago Cubs bats are ready for a huge postseason performance in October.

More important than just getting ready to play close and tight games, the Chicago Cubs are ready for playoff caliber starting pitching. In fact, statistics over the past month suggest the Cubs would rather face great starting pitching in the coming weeks. Don’t believe me? Please read on.

In 21 games from Aug. 27 to Sept. 17, the Cubs went 12-9, for a winning percentage of .571, only slightly below their .586 for the season. So, while we felt a major slide with the offense, our winning percentage basically remained constant. And it wasn’t just your imagination feeling as though the offense was underperforming; over that 21-game stretch I referenced, the Cubs scored only 3.67 runs per game (77 in 21 games) compared to their 4.69 runs per game clip for the season (703 in 150 games heading into Wednesday’s game in Arizona).

So, that begs the question – how did we win those games? Well, with pitching, of course. But, that simplistic answer belies how we really did it, and how we fared in different games throughout that stretch.