90

Holy mackerel! The Cubs beat the Brewers 5-3 on Saturday behind a quality start from Justin "Wake the Eff Up" Steele (6 IP, 3 ER, 5 K) and two-run homers from Michael Busch and Ian Happ.

Happ has had a great June, with five home runs and a .900 OPS. The North Siders' bullpen put together another nice outing, with three relievers combining for three innings of scoreless ball.

 

After a couple of Cubs defensive miscues, Steele returned to the dugout fired up, shouting "wake the f*** up" to no one in particular. This fan thinks it's way past time for someone to show some fire on this club, considering the number of baserunning blunders and fielding gaffes this team has had. It was encouraging to see Steele taking a leadership role. Here's hoping that it fires up the Men in Blue.

The series wraps up Sunday in Milwaukee.

84 games down, 78 to go. Go Cubs go!

Image Credit:  Chicago Cubs

92

Holy cow! The Cubs beat the Giants 5-3 in 10 innings Thursday behind a quality start from Imanaga (6 IP, 3 ER, 3 K), a two-run homer from Nico Hoerner, and a game-winning 10th inning two-run shot from Ian Happ.

Four Cubs relievers combined to toss four innings of one-hit, seven-strikeout scoreless ball.

The Men in Blue head to Wrigley North on Friday to kick off a three-game weekend set against the division-leading Brewers. Here's hoping that they can gain some ground.

82 games down, 80 to go.  Go Cubs go!

95

Friday in the NL Central:  Cubs lost, Brewers lost, CMN dropped.

 

The series against the Mets continues Saturday at Wrigley.

76 games down, 86 to go. Go Cubs go!

96

Hey hey! The Cubs beat the Giants 6-5 on Wednesday behind a nice start from Kyle Hendricks (5.2 IP, 1 ER, 8 K) and home runs from Ian Happ and Dansby Swanson.

 

The North Siders continue their longest homestand of the season Friday as they kick off a three-game weekend set against the Mets.

 

75 games down, 87 to go. Go Cubs go!

 

Image Credit:  Chicago Cubs

 

98

Holy cow! The Cubs beat the Giants 5-2 on Tuesday behind a quality start from Justin Steele (6.2 IP, 2 ER, 8 K), a two-run homer from Swanson, a three-run 8th inning rally, and 2.1 perfect innings of relief from the bullpen.

Steele has been stellar in his last five starts, allowing a total of four earned runs over 31.2 innings, a 1.15 ERA over that stretch. 

Busch, Bellinger, and Happ each notched two-hit nights, but it was the North Siders' bullpen that really made Cubs fans happy last night:  Tyson Miller closed the door on the Giants and Keegan Thompson struck out the side in the 9th to earn his first save of the year.

74 games down, 88 to go. Go Cubs go!

 

Image Credit:  Chicago Cubs

102

Holy mackerel! The Cubs held on to beat the Rays 4-3 on Wednesday behind a three-run homer from Cody Bellinger and a nailbiting save from Hector Neris.

 

Seiya Suzuki also homered for the North Siders as part of a two-hit night. Michael Busch and Bellinger each also had two hits.

 

Neris's save was not drama-free, as he gave up a solo shot in the bottom of the ninth to put the Rays within one. The rest of the Chicago bullpen was stellar, as Miller and Smyly combined for 3.1 perfect innings.

The series wraps up Thursday at Tropicana Field before the Cubs return to Wrigley Friday to kick off their longest homestand of the 2024 campaign.

The fourteen-game stretch leading up to their month-end series against the Brewers offers the Cubs plenty of opportunity, as all fourteen of those games come against teams below .500 with nine of them at home.

68 games down, 94 to go.  Go Cubs go!

Photo Credit: RFBleachers

104

Hey hey! The Cubs salvaged a game in Cincy on Sunday behind another quality start from Shota Imanaga. Ian Happ drove in three to help Chicago grab a 4-2 win on getaway day.

The Men in Blue wrap up the road trip with a three-game set against the Rays that kicks off Tuesday night. Their longest homestand of the season -- nine games -- starts Friday against the Cards.

66 games down, 96 to go. Go Cubs go!

 

Image Credit:  Chicago Cubs

106

Holy mackerel! The Cubs came back again on Wednesday to beat the White Sox 7-6 on Mike Tauchman's walk-off home run. Down 5-1 in the 4th, the bullpen pitched four innings of one-run ball as the offense chipped away to complete the sweep of the two-game series.

Tauchman and Dansby Swanson each had two-hit nights, and Porter Hodge continued to impress in his rookie season, tossing another scoreless inning to keep his ERA at 0.00 after his first five appearances (4.1 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 7 K).

The Cubs kick off a four-game weekend series at Cincinnati on Thursday before wrapping up their road trip with a three-game set in Tampa next week.

Their next 20 games could be pivotal, as they include the season's longest homestand (9 games) and no games against teams over .500.

 

62 games down, 100 to go.  Go Cubs go!

Photo Credit:  RFBleachers

108

Hey hey! The Cubs came back to beat the White Sox 7-6 on Tuesday behind a game-winning two-run double by Ian Happ and two-run homers from Chris Morel and Patrick Wisdom.

Happ had a big night at the plate, going 3-for-4, while Shota Imanaga struck out six over 4.1 innings. A Morel error led to four unearned runs, but the bullpen picked up both of them, tossing 4.2 innings of one-run ball.

The series wraps up Wednesday before the Cubs head to Cincinnati to face the Reds (again!) for four games this weekend.

 

The upcoming stretch of Cubs baseball could be, as Pat Hughes might say, a turning point for the season. Their next 21 games contain:

• the season's longest homestand (9 games)
• 1 more game against MLB's worst team (White Sox)
• 0 games against teams over .500.
  

After that, they head to Milwaukee for a three-game showdown. The Cubs simply must take advantage of this stretch.

 

61 games down, 101 to go.

Go Cubs go!

 

Image Credit:  RFBleachers

110

Well, it finally happened -- the Brewers lost a game on Monday, lowering the CMN. The Cubs had a rough weekend series against the last place Reds, dropping two of three despite strong starting pitching in two of the three games.

Saturday's contest was messy and memorable:  a rain delay of more that three hours pushed first pitch back to 9:35 p.m., despite a steady rain that fell well into the 11 o'clock hour. Seiya Suzuki's three-run error in the top of the 2nd allowed the Reds to climb to an early 4-0 lead, but his thrilling grand slam in the bottom of the frame tied the ballgame.

Dansby Swanson's two-run homer gave the Cubs the lead for good at 7-5.

Other weekend highlights included another nice start from Assad on Friday (5.1 IP, 2 ER, 7 K), four scoreless relief innings from the bullpen on Saturday, including a three-strikeout inning from Wesneski, and Nick Madrigal's long-overdue demotion to AAA accompanied by David Bote's long-overdue return to Wrigley.

The Cubs kick off a two-game set with the White Sox Tuesday night at Wrigley before hitting the road to face -- you guessed it -- the Reds. After a travel day next monday, they'll take on the Rays in Tampa before heading back to the Friendly Confines for their longest homestand of the year, nine games, which starts on June 14.

60 games down, 102 to go. Go Cubs go!

Some of RFBleachers' photos from last weekend's series:

Friday, June 1

 

Saturday, June 2

Saturday, June 2's Long Rain Delay

 

Saturday's Late Night Result

RFBleachers on a tour of Wrigley

Yep, those are bricks behind that ivy!

View from the Press Box