THAT’S A SWEEP! OF THE CARDINALS! THE FORMERLY FIRST PLACE CARDINALS! THE CUBS ARE NOW IN FIRST PLACE!
Ah. That felt good.
Also feeling good? How the Cubs just kept steadily adding tonight, making a small lead a medium lead, and then a slightly bigger lead, and then eventually a pretty decently-sized lead, and finally, a blowout. Heck, that was before Kris Bryant’s exclamation point grand slam. It just feels very soothing when a Cubs game builds like that.
But for a Yadi Molina fly ball that may have nicked the basket and rendered it uncatchable, Jose Quintana likely throws six scoreless innings tonight. Against a good offense, it was another good performance by one of the Cubs’ steadiest performers this year.
Speaking of steady performers, the Cubs bullpen just keeps on doing its thing, eh?
Both the starter and the bullpen got mixed help on defense, with a couple Kris Bryant errors and a he-tried-to-El-Mago-whoops error from Javy Baez. But most of the Cubs looked especially sharp out there most of the time – including nearly-38-year-old left fielder Ben Zobrist, who was flashing the leather with all the spritely jauntiness of a 34-year-old.
In the end, it’s a blowout win for the Cubs, who sweep the Cardinals, and now find themselves alone in first place in the NL Central. Awesome.