52

The first place Cubs face the Mariners at Wrigley Sunday night in the rubber game of the series.

Let's go!

54

Hey hey! The first place Cubs are looking like they did in April: in a groove. Friday, they dismantled the Mariners 12-1. Jon Lester held Seattle scoreless through 6 (7 K, 4 H, 2 BB), and the Cubs' offense had a field day.

Chris Coghlan celebrated his return to the roster with 2 RBI, Grandpa Ross and J-Hey homered, KB went 3-for-3 with 2 walks, and Rizzo drove in 3.

The MLB-best Cubs continue the three-game series with Seattle on Saturday at Wrigley.

Let's go!

Image Credit: Chicago Cubs

56

Welcome to Chicago, Aroldis Chapman!

It took a trip to the Northside to finally take down the White Sox, but boy did the guys in blue do it in style! The Cubs took the first of two home games with a score of 8 to 1.

Hammel held the Sox to five hits with only one run and struck out seven. The bullpen did the rest with Rondon pitching a solid 8th and Chapman pitching lights out baseball in the 9th.

On the other side of the plate, the Cubs bats came alive. Baez, Russel, and Bryant all hit home runs. Bryant's tied his rookie year home run total of 26. (Something tells us he will have a new high this season). In total, six batters had hits and four of them had RBIs. Russel took the RBI crown with a GRAND SLAM in the eighth to finish off the Southsiders.

The Cubs will have one more game with the Sox before welcoming Seattle to town for a weekend series.

For those keeping score:

This was the 100th game of the season

The Cubs have won 60 of those games

The Cubs are the first team to reach 60 wins

And Yes... The Cubs are the BEST TEAM IN BASEBALL with a .600 average!

Photo Credit: Chicago Cubs

NL Central Standings
Team        W   L    PCT    GB

Cubs       60  40   .600    --

Cards      54  47   .535   6.5

Pirates    52  48   .520   8.0

58

Holy cow! The first place Cubs came back to beat the Brewers 6-5 and take the three-game series on Sunday. In his Cubs debut, Joe Nathan picked up the win with a scoreless relief inning, and the Cubs put up a 5 spot in the 7th to take the lead for good.

With "You Go, We Go" getting a day off, Tommy LaStella channeled his inner Dexter (Fowler, that is), leading off and reaching base in 4 of 4 plate appearances with an RBI and a run scored. Zobrist knocked in two more and Rizzo had a bases-clearing double to tally 3 more RBI.

The Cubs confirmed a trade with the Yankees that will bring fireman Aroldis Chapman to Chicago just in time for the Crosstown Cup four-game, home-and-home series with the White Sox that starts Monday.

Let's go!

Image Credit: Chicago Cubs

NL Central Standings
Team        W   L    PCT    GB

Cubs       59  38   .608    --

Cards      52  46   .531   7.5

Pirates    51  47   .520   8.5

60

The first place Cubs dropped their Saturday night game to the Brew Crew. Cards also lost, dropping the CMN to 61.

Rubber game of the series Sunday at Miller Park, with Joe Nathan joining the North Siders' bullpen, followed by a home-and-home four game set with the White Sox in Chicago.

Let's go!

NL Central Standings
Team        W   L    PCT    GB

Cubs       58  38   .604    --

Cards      52  45   .536   6.5

Pirates    50  47   .515   8.5

61

Holy cow! Dexter "You Go, We Go" Fowler is BACK! In his first game back from the DL in a month, Dex reached base in 4 of 5 plate appearances with a homer and 3 RBI to pace the Cubs over the Brewers, 5-2.

Jason "Potato Chip" Hammel picked up the win with 5 IP and 2 ER, and the bullpen closed out the Brew Crew with four scoreless innings of relief.

Game two of the weekend series is Saturday at Miller Park.

Let's go!

NL Central Standings

Team        W   L    PCT    GB

Cubs       58  37   .611    --

Cards      51  44   .537   7.0

Pirates    49  47   .510   9.5

62

Holy cow! The Cubs downed the Mets 6-2 at Wrigley on Wednesday behind Kyle Hendricks' quality start (6.1 IP, 7 K, 0 ER) and Anthony Rizzo's two homers.

Rizz tallied 3 RBI, and Addy Russell knocked in 2 more, going 3-for-3. Baez went 2-for-4 with an RBI, and KB went 2-for-5 with a stolen base and 2 runs scored.

The win gave the first place Cubs the series win, two games to one, over a team that has given the Cubs fits (0-8, to be precise) dating back to last year's NLCS. That, coupled with another series win over the first place Rangers, makes for a nice start to the second half.

Off day tomorrow followed by a three-game weekend series in Milwaukee.

Let's go!

Image Credit: Chicago Cubs

NL Central Standings

Team        W   L    PCT    GB

Cubs       57  37   .606    --

Cards      50  44   .532   7.0

Pirates    48  46   .511   9.0

63

Hey hey! The Cubs downed the Mets 5-1 at Wrigley behind Jon Lester's 10th win and a nice balance of offense. Lester's line: QS, 7.2 IP, 4 H, 3 K, 1 ER.

Anthony Rizzo launched a 3-run HR, Matt Szczur went 3-for-4 with 2 runs scored, and Javy Baez went 2-for-4 with a run scored.

More good news: Dexter "You Go, We Go" Fowler and Jorge Soler start rehab stints at AAA Iowa this week and should be back in Cubbie pinstripes soon.

The first-place Cubs host New York for game two of the three-game series Tuesday.

Let's go!

Image Credit: Chicago Cubs

NL Central Standings

Team        W   L    PCT    GB

Cubs       56  36   .609    --

Cards      48  44   .522   8.0

Pirates    47  45   .511   9.0

64

Cubs drop the series finale to the Rangers on Sunday, 4-1, but still take two out of three from the AL's second-best team.

The Cards also lost Sunday, dropping the CMN to 64.

The first-place Cubs host the Mets for a three-game series starting Monday.

Let's go!

NL Central Standings

Team        W   L    PCT    GB

Cubs       55  36   .604    --

Cards      47  44   .516   8.0

Pirates    47  45   .511   8.5

65

The Cubs took the series against the AL's best Texas Rangers with a score of 3 to 1. Jason Hammel came out on top of a pitchers duel where Darvish of the Rangers struck out 9 and Hammel struck out 7. After six innings, the bullpen kept up the good work allowing no hits, striking out 2, and only allowing one walk.

The Cubs' biggest issue for the past month has been pitching, so the past two days are a very good sign for Chicago as they drive towards October.

Look for brooms tomorrow as the Cubs look to sweep the Rangers before welcoming the Mets back to Chicago.

Clark and Addison Approve

(and so does their proud Dad)

NL Central Standings

Team        W   L    PCT    GB

Cubs       55  35   .611    --

Cards      47  43   .522   8.0

Pirates    46  45   .505   9.5

Brewers    39  50   .438  15.5

Reds       33  58   .363  22.5

66

After a rough close to the first half of the season, the Cubs used their bats to silence doubters in the first game of the second half. The Cubs scored six runs on seven hits against the Rangers who were held to zero by Hendricks and the bullpen.

The fireworks happened in the sixth inning when the Cubs sent ten Cubs to the plate and scored five runs. The solid inning of baseball was what the Cubs hitters needed to show that they could still make the opposing teams pay for mistakes.

The Cardinals helped out the Northsiders by losing to the Marlins later in the evening - bringing the magic number down to 66. The Cubs will finish out the weekend with the Rangers before welcoming the Mets to Chicago.

Photo Credit: Chicago Cubs

NL Central Standings

Team        W   L    PCT    GB

Cubs       54  35   .607    --

Cards      46  43   .517   8.0

Pirates    46  44   .511   8.5

Brewers    38  50   .432  15.5

Reds       33  57   .367  21.5