Chicago Cubs are ready to battle against postseason aces in October

Chicago Cubs: Kicking it up a notch against the best

In those 21 games, the Cubs faced seven starting pitchers (Jacob deGrom, Mike Foltynewicz, Aaron Nola, Jhoulys Chacin, Max Scherzer, Chacin again and Patrick Corbin) who are in the top 30 in Fangraphs total WAR for pitchers this season.

In those games, we went 6-1. That means in all the other games, against starting pitchers outside the top 30 this season, we were mediocre, going 6-8. When you delve into the numbers, it gets even crazier (or hopeful, if you’re a believer that the Cubs can make another World Series run this postseason).

In the seven games against top 30 pitchers, we scored 2.71 runs (19 total in 7 games) off the starting pitcher. In the 14 games against pitchers not in that top 30 group, we scored 1.57 runs against each starter (22 total runs in 14 games).

Your eyes didn’t deceive you; we actually scored 1.14 runs more against great starting pitchers during that span than we did against mediocre or bad (at least this year) starters.