Cubs Pull Back Into Solo First Place, Javy is MVP’ing, Happ’s Catch, and Other Bullets

Ah, the days after the Blogathon. The haze and fog of the marathon session don’t wear off immediately after a night or two of sleep, and I’m still feeling it today. It makes me sloooooowwwwwwww …

• With credit going to the Brewers, they have been completely unfazed by their West Coast road trip this week, taking it to the Giants and Dodgers, and climbing back into a tie with the Cubs atop the standings in the NL Central. Thankfully, they were not able to finish off the Dodgers last night:

YAZ called game. #Dodgers pic.twitter.com/7TtIgHeqcG

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 2, 2018

• Coupled with the Cubs’ win over the Pirates, we get to say the Cubs are alone in first place again today – hooray:

• Speaking of the Cubs win, I bet you never thought you’d see a picture like this coming after the final out in a Cubs game:

• That’s Tyler Chatwood locking down the 7-run save last night in his Cubs bullpen debut. He gave up a solid single and a Chatwood-esque walk, but also got a couple groundballs, the second of which was a double play to end the game. Fine. I doubt we see him right now in anything other than a blowout in either direction like that, or a situation where the bullpen is totally exhausted. How long can the Cubs carry Chatwood in that capacity? Well, it might come to a head when Brandon Morrow and Anthony Bass are ready to return from the DL, but that may still be a little ways away.
• When you extrapolate out Javy Baez’s current 162-game pace on offense – totally ignoring his stellar and versatile defense, as well as his magical baserunning – he could not possibly look more like an MVP candidate:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bl-qatTjjyB/?taken-by=bleachernation

Batting .300 with 30 HRs, 30 steals, 100 RBIs, elite defense and elite base running on a division winner makes you an MVP candidate, regardless of where your walk rate and OBP lands. Obviously, he's not here yet, but he will be.#ElMago

— Michael Cerami (@Michael_Cerami) August 2, 2018

• Speaking of the thorough El Mago-ness of El Mago, his feat on the bases last night made me flash on the time earlier this year when Ryan Braun tried to do that to Jon Lester, failed, and then got the business from Javy:

https://twitter.com/BleacherNation/status/1025023673319743490

• Ian Happ made an Albert Almora catch out there last night:

• It pains me to admit that this is actually quite funny:

https://twitter.com/flippingbats/status/1025025386894290944

• The Bears kick off their preseason tonight, which means you should definitely check out our BN Bears coverage:

SOON. pic.twitter.com/afpL8al6IR

— Bleacher Nation Bears (@BN_Bears) August 2, 2018

The Chicago Bears’ Road to the Playoffs Begins Tonight in Canton https://t.co/8RVq4VrcXM pic.twitter.com/MHAnziah8V

— Bleacher Nation Bears (@BN_Bears) August 2, 2018

• Fanatics is doing, specifically, an MLB gear sale today, and it’s really good on Cubs stuff, so check it out:

Heads up to a HUGE sale on MLB gear at Fanatics today: https://t.co/LKUm1DRkJ3 pic.twitter.com/ndAL8H0EOu

— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) August 2, 2018