Cubs 8, Twins 2: The offense worked again

I’ve written this several times here and I believe it and I want you to believe it and maybe the Cubs players will start to believe it.

This is a good Cubs team and I think they can run an offense like this every day and maybe put together a winning streak and get back in the wild card race.

They showed that clearly in their 8-2 victory over the Twins, which also won the series against a pretty good team from Minnesota.

Granted, they were lucky when Twins starter Joe Ryan had to leave the game with what was later described as “triceps tightness.” You never want to see anyone hurt, but that allowed the Cubs to get a lot of runs out of the Twins bullpen.

Let’s start at the beginning. Javier Assad got himself in trouble again when he walked Trevor Larnach with one out in the first inning. One out later, Matt Wallner hit a double into Larnach and the Twins took a 1-0 lead.

It only took two Cubs batters to tie the game. Michael Busch hit a massive home run, his 16th (VIDEO).

Busch specializes in these high-apex home runs. Look how high this one was! (VIDEO)

And it would have gone even further if a 14 mph wind hadn’t blown in from Lake Michigan on what was otherwise one of the best weather days of the entire summer at Wrigley Field.

The Twins scored another run against Assad in the second inning, and Assad struggled through the first two innings, throwing 47 pitches and getting six outs. His defense helped him along the way – here’s a nice catch by Happ (VIDEO).

Assad was a little better in the third inning, and that’s when Ryan got injured after throwing three pitches to Pete Crow-Armstrong.

This is what happened to Ryan (VIDEO).

Trevor Richards relieved Ryan and then the fun began. PCA hit a single and stole second base. Christian Bethancourt worked a walk and was forced to second base by Happ, after which PCA reached third base. Then Happ stole second base and Busch worked a walk to load the bases.

This got me talking about Seiya Suzuki (VIDEO).

This tied the game at 2-2 and the other runners moved up one base. Happ was able to give the Cubs a 3-2 lead with this sacrifice fly from Isaac Paredes (VIDEO).

Busch reached third base with this fly ball and scored with this wild pitch (VIDEO).

Two more walks to Mike Tauchman and Nico Hoerner added new bases, but Dansby Swanson hit into a forced play to end the inning. Still, it was a productive inning that gave the Cubs three runs on just one hit (PCA’s leadoff single).

Assad finished the fourth inning scoreless, but was replaced after throwing 75 pitches, far too many for four innings. He needs to work on his command and control skills.

The Cubs extended their lead in the fourth inning. With one out, Bethancourt hit a double and Happ followed with his 18th home run (VIDEO).

With this home run, Happ tied the team’s lead with the retired Christopher Morel. This gave the Cubs a 6-2 lead.

The Cubs bullpen did a good job in this game, throwing five scoreless innings with three hits and no walks allowed, along with six strikeouts, thanks to Drew Smyly (one inning), Jorge López (two), Porter Hodge (one), and Julian Merryweather (one).

The Cubs scored two more runs in the eighth inning. Tauchman led off with a single, stole second base and advanced to third after an infield out.

Swanson hit a single in Tauchman (VIDEO).

Swanson then stole second base, the Cubs’ fourth steal of the game. After PCA retired, Bethancourt brought Swanson in with a double (VIDEO).

That was Bethancourt’s second double of the game. He now has a batting average of .429/.500/.857 (6-for-14) as a Cub with three doubles, a home run and five RBIs in five games. Small sample size, but he also threw out both runners who tried to steal against him. He’s certainly not a long-term solution as a catcher, but make this streak last as long as you can, Craig Counsell.

Here is the last out of the game, a ground ball to second base (VIDEO).

That was a satisfying win, a satisfying series, and a satisfying home standing. The Cubs, as I mentioned above, won a series against a very good team that could very well win the AL Central. They’ve won five of seven home games against two pretty good teams. Now they just need to keep that winning streak going, and I think they can, and so… at least for today…

Here are Craig Counsell’s post-game comments (VIDEO).

Counsell is right – all the guys across the lineup are contributing and I think we can continue like this.

A note on this series win by JohnW53 of BCB:

The Cubs are now 9-10 after splitting the first two games of a three-game series. They had started the season 5-3, then went 4-7 and won the last two, on July 28 at Kansas City and today. They had won two games in a row only once before, on April 14 at Seattle and April 17 at Arizona.

The Cubs are off on Thursday and then head to the South Side to face the White Sox in a two-game set. You all know about the Sox’s 21-game losing streak, which they finally ended on Tuesday, only to lose again on Wednesday afternoon. Here’s hoping the Cubs extend the Sox’s losing streak. Jameson Taillon will start the series opener against the Sox, and Sox ace Garrett Crochet will start for them. Game time on Friday is 7:10 p.m. CT and will be televised by Marquee Sports Network (and NBC Sports Chicago with the Sox commentators).