Chicago Cubs continue riding the strength of their starting rotation

Chicago Cubs: Quintana and Darvish have been critical pieces

Those three guys are undoubtedly the top three starters in Maddon’s arsenal. In a hypothetical best-of-five series come October, it wouldn’t surprise anyone to see this trio penciled in as the Cubs’ starters. But don’t sleep on the final two guys rounding out the rotation, Jose Quintana and Yu Darvish.

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Quintana also got off to a quick start – but even since then, he’s been the epitome of consistency this season. He hasn’t been an ace, but despite what many think, Chicago didn’t acquire him two years ago to fill that role. They wanted him for his controllability and consistency – and that’s what they’ve gotten.

The southpaw has pitched at least six innings in seven of his 13 outings and has allowed more than three earned in just a pair of outings. As for Darvish, it’s been a lot of mixed signals – but things have been trending up of late.

In his last two starts, the right-hander has allowed just three earned runs in 11 1/3 innings of work. He’s struck out 11 and walked six – still a high number, but an ultimately manageable one.

Away from Wrigley Field, Darvish has actually been a quality starter: 11.8 strikeouts per nine and a 3.64 ERA in a half-dozen outings.

Getting quality from Darvish lately has helped the Cubs rotation round into the form we’d all hoped for: a one through five run of quality. With Craig Kimbrel on his way to shore up the bullpen, we could be headed for a run of dominance we haven’t seen from Chicago pitching in some time.