Weekend Catch-Up: Big Sweep, Injury Returns, Offensive Outbursts, More

Hey, so that was a really good weekend, eh? Fresh off the memory of last weekend, which saw the Cubs swept by a division rival, this weekend it was the Cubs doing the trick.

Friday, September 15

  • Anthony Rizzo has already tied his career high in homers, with 32. He’s been there twice before.
  • Joe Maddon said he’d talked to Wade Davis about multi-inning appearances, and it didn’t take long for him to be used that way.
  • Thoughts on the offensive breakout of the Cubs, and the so-so debut of Jen-Ho Tseng.
  • The amount Shohei Otani could get this offseason is even lower than folks have been suggesting, which makes you wonder if he’ll really be coming (or if the Cubs have a shot).
  • A myriad of injury updates for the Cubs, including a couple in the bullpen.
  • Bits from around the league, including a certain returning National who could impact the Cubs’ likely first playoff series.
  • The Cubs rode a big inning to a game one blowout of the Cardinals. Javy Baez showed off his persistent smoothness on D.
  • Mid-game, though, the big story was a set of ejections for John Lackey and Willson Contreras after they blew up at the ump.
  • Joe Maddon, Lackey, and Contreras discussed the blow-up after the game.
  • Saturday, September 16

  • It was the one-year anniversary of the Cubs clinching, which was also my youngest daughter’s first birthday, and so I took the opportunity to share with you some things we’re going through.
  • Kris Bryant may not be driving in a ton of runs, but he sure is scoring them.
  • The Cubs remain on an offensive tear, of the kind they haven’t seen in literal decades.
  • Willson Contreras received a two-game suspension for his actions on Friday, which, ridiculous.
  • The Cubs won the second game of the series against the Cardinals, and even got a pinch-hit home run from Addison Russell in his return to the Cubs.
  • Sunday, September 17

  • Among Sunday’s Bullets, I didn’t realize just how much the Cubs had dominated the Cardinals since mid-2015.
  • Willson Contreras’s appeal was decided rather quickly, and his suspension was reduced to one game – a game he was likely going to be sitting anyway.
  • And the Cubs won the final game of the series despite a late game-tying homer by Dexter Fowler. Kyle Schwarber hit his 27th homer of the year in the game.
  • written by

    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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