The Cubs have been on a roll in August, since break originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
More often than not this month, the Cubs have gotten good performances from their starting pitching.
The way they’ve played in August, then, should be no surprise.
The Cubs beat the Cardinals 7-1 Wednesday night at Wrigley Field, improving to 13-10 this month.
“This is what this group does. They bring it every day,” manager David Ross said. “Again, nice starting pitching that sets everything up. Get the lead. I don’t know, just a lot of confidence in that.”
Wednesday’s effort was led by Luke Farrell, whom the Cubs signed as a minor-league free agent in May and was making his first big-league appearance since last October.
Farrell, who’s been waived or released five times in his career, including by the Cubs in 2018, allowed six hits and a run in 4 1/3 innings.
After some early small ball, a Zach McKinstry home run in the seventh inning opened things up.
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Farrell
“I thought Luke set the tone coming right at them,” Ross said. “No walks tonight. Really, really impressive.
“That makes the manager really happy. I like those nights.”
Farrell’s performance came a day after prospect Javier Assad made his MLB debut and threw four-plus shutout innings.
The 31-year-old’s outing Wednesday improved the Cubs rotation’s ERA to 3.23 this month, and that’s even after Adrian Sampson struggled Tuesday night.
“My goal was to give us a chance to win, and we ended up winning,” Farrell said. “So, did the job.”
Wednesday’s win clinched the Cubs’ most wins in a calendar month this season, and their most in a single month in over a year (19-8 in May 2021).
They need to go 3-4 over the next week to clinch their first winning month since then.
Not only that, they’ve gone 19-13 since the All-Star break and have an opportunity to win their sixth straight series on Thursday despite two losses of the opposite variety (1-0 Monday; 13-3 in Game 2 of Tuesday’s doubleheader).
“These guys turn the page pretty fast,” Ross said. “Been doing a nice job just coming in and competing every single at-bat, every single pitch.”
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