Chicago Cubs: Did they fix the offense after a two-game skid?

Did the Chicago Cubs ‘fix’ the offense after getting shutout in back-to-back games by the Milwaukee Brewers? The Seattle Mariners helped, but the Cubs weren’t worried.

The Chicago Cubs weren’t worried. Well, until they hadn’t scored through the sixth inning, but still, not worried. Kyle Hendricks pitched a masterful game allowing one run on three hits while striking out seven. But he didn’t figure in the decision as that was left up to the bullpen.

The Cubs were scoreless until the sixth inning when they broke it wide open. It started with a walk by Jason Heyward, and then Nicholas Castellanos struck out while Heyward stole second. Kris Bryant also walked, setting up a single by Anthony Rizzo to tie up the game, 1-1. Jake Fraley threw an errant throw to the infield allowing Bryant and Rizzo to move up. Albert Almora was intentionally walked, and the ‘speed’ was up in Kyle Schwarber.

Okay, speed is not the ideal word. But he hit one off the first base bag past a diving Daniel Vogelbach in which all three runners scored and Schwarber ended up on third. Addison Russell scored Schwarber with a fielder’s choice and the Cubs never looked back as they won, 5-1.

More so than the scoring output from the Cubs was their use of the bullpen. Hendricks started it off and had an excellent six innings of work who gave way to David Phelps who got the win in one inning of scoreless baseball. The choices after that were odd for Joe Maddon in the sense that the game was still on the line.

Duane Underwood Jr. and Brad Wieck were called on to pitch the eighth and ninth innings, respectively. Both of them pitched very well, and Wieck closed it out with a strikeout, his second one of the inning. These aren’t ‘high leverage’ guys, but they did the job, regardless if it was against the Mariners.

Steve Cishek was warming up in the pen, but he didn’t need to be called upon after Wieck shut the M’s down. Was this to get a feel for when the game is on the line? And how Underwood Jr. and Wieck might respond? It may have been. Or Maddon had guys that were ‘unavailable’ after Brewers series and was going to try and stay away from.

A win is a win, and the Cubs sit just 3 1/2 back in the second Wild Card, and three games back in the division. The Central crown is likely going to go through St. Louis as seven of the last 10 are against the Cardinals including a three-game road series to finish the year.