Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Yu Darvish delivers during the third inning of a baseball game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday, August 13, 2020 in Chicago.
Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Yu Darvish delivers during the third inning of a baseball game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday, August 13, 2020 in Chicago.
Photo: Jeff Haynes, AP
Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Yu Darvish delivers during the third inning of a baseball game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday, August 13, 2020 in Chicago.
Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Yu Darvish delivers during the third inning of a baseball game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday, August 13, 2020 in Chicago.
Photo: Jeff Haynes, AP
Yu Darvish is finally pitching again as an All-Star, and the Chicago Cubs have emerged as the first leaders in NL Central.
The Cubs have entered this season at a bit of a crossroads. Since they won the World Series in 2016, they have only won one post-season series. They didn’t make the playoffs in 2019 and David Ross replaced Joe Maddon as manager before this season.
NL Central were hard to figure out in 2020, but Chicago broke out early to a 13-3 record, and the Cubs still lead the division for 3.5 games even after losing their last three games of their series to Milwaukee.
Darvish caught a no-hitter in the seventh inning against the Brewers in Chicago’s 4-2 win on Thursday night.
A four-time All-Star with Texas, Darvish was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2017, then signed with the Cubs. He suffered from elbow and tricep injuries while in Chicago, but this year he is 3-1 with a 1.88 ERA and plays an important role in his team’s quick start.
The Cubs are winning despite Kris Bryant’s batting average of .182 and a rough start for Craig Kimbrel. Kyle Hendricks and Jon Lester were both solid in the rotation along with Darvish.
It’s hard to say who will be the best challenger of the Cubs in the division. St. Louis won it last year, but the Cardinals only played eight games in 2020 due to the coronavirus. Milwaukee climbed back to .500 with those victories over Chicago.
SOUTH SIDE
The other Chicago team also made their presence felt, although the White Sox didn’t show as much consistency as the Cubs. The White Sox are 11-11, but showed some of their potential on Sunday by landing four consecutive home runs in a 7-2 win over St. Louis.
Yoan Moncada, Yasmani Grandal, Jose Abreu and Eloy Jimenez went deep during that series. With batting champion Tim Anderson and rookie star Luis Robert also in the mix, the White Sox are a fun dark horse in the American League.
TRIVIA TIME
Texas right-footed Lance Lynn is 3-0 with a 1.11 ERA leading in the major league. Who is the last Rangers pitcher to win the American League ERA title?
HIGHLIGHT
Washington’s Asdrubal Cabrera went over the bench rail first on Thursday as he made a grapple in dirty ground.
The New York Mets have momentarily put aside concerns of social distancing, rushing to help prevent Cabrera from falling all the way through.
LINE OF THE WEEK
Mookie Betts of the Dodgers hit three home runs Thursday night in an 11-2 win over San Diego. Betts has already set a record with his sixth game of three career homers.
It was a good start for Betts after being swapped from Boston to Los Angeles. He’s hitting .314 with eight home runs, and the Dodgers are exactly where they should have been: on top of the NL West. The Red Sox, meanwhile, are languishing in the basement of AL East.
Going into Sunday’s games, Betts was worth 1.8 wins over the substitution, according to baseball-reference.com. No one on the Red Sox was even worth half as much WAR.
ANSWER TRIVIA
It’s a bit of a trick question, but Rick Honeycutt led the AL with an ERA of 2.42 for Rangers in 1983. However, he didn’t end the season with them. Honeycutt was traded to the Dodgers that August – Los Angeles gave up 20-game winner Dave Stewart in the deal – and his ERA with Texas was the AL’s best.
