The Cubs’ Division Lead Swells Again as Julio Urias Looms and Other Bullets

Jun 02, 2016

We’re a couple days out now from The Little Boy’s little medical procedures and all is well, and he’s back to school today.

The Cubs will come into today’s series finale against the Dodgers with a chance to win the four-game series despite an extremely unusual first three games. What do I mean? The Cubs have won two and lost one, despite a negative run differential in the series (six runs for the Dodgers, four for the Cubs). For a team that has been pushing the historical limits of run differential, that’s pretty remarkable. In that way, I suppose it was about time the Cubs won some games without the benefit of absolutely blowing the other team away.

Also, thanks to yesterday’s win and losses by each of the Pirates and Cardinals, the Cubs’ lead in the NL Central is now 7.5 games over the former and 9.5 games over the latter. The biggest lead in any other division is the Giants’ 4.5-game cushion over those Dodgers. The Cubs’ lead had shrunk to 4.5 games during their mini-swoon a couple weeks ago, but it has swelled again.

It was a possibility as soon as Alex Wood went on the DL and was replaced on the roster by 19-year-old stud prospect Julio Urias, but now it’s official: the Dodgers will buy Kenta Maeda an extra day of rest (took a liner off the hand) by starting Urias tomorrow against the Cubs instead of Maeda. That’ll be fun for Cubs fans to watch, even if it’s possible that Urias puts it together and dominates.[adinserter block=”1″]

Jed Hoyer offered a vote of confidence to Clayton Richard in this CSN piece, believing that his good sinker will keep generating ground balls (and, if so, will get him some better results, as we discussed yesterday).

It was a special moment last night when Cubs fan and NBA reporter Craig Sager, who is battling cancer, got to throw out the first pitch and sing the 7th Inning Stretch for Conquer Cancer Day at Wrigley Field (a game dominated by Jon Lester, himself a cancer survivor; and the first pitch went to Anthony Rizzo, another cancer survivor):

Big @Cubs fan Craig Sager threw out the first pitch at Wrigley tonight: https://t.co/dE7CN4KRhr pic.twitter.com/xcTHiUfRAj

— MLB (@MLB) June 2, 2016

The one and only, Craig Sager! #SagerStrong pic.twitter.com/VuNUHwoX3k

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) June 1, 2016

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There are reports that Jonathan Herrera, who had been playing in the Mexican League this year, was suspended for using a corked bat. That’s a bummer for a guy who was such a fun part of the Cubs’ 2015 season.

A very confident Cubs fan preemptively got a tattoo that basically puts the Cubs on the clock to win a World Series soon.[adinserter block=”2″]

Remember this? The best part in the pictures is Sean Marshall watching calmly and blowing a bubble:

June 1, 2007: The slugout in the Cubs dugout https://t.co/ubXvD5P0pj pic.twitter.com/Wg03yvuIji

— Amanda Kaschube (@amandakaschube) June 1, 2016

written by

Brett Taylor

Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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