Up and Down Start

The NL Central was thought to be a very competitive division. Through the first 18 games of the season that is exactly what is happening.

The Chicago Cubs after their big offseason signings and trades of Edward Cabrera and Alex Bregman were thought to have taken another step forward.

However, the Cubs are in last place still after what has been a lot of uninspiring baseball played but there is still hope. They are only 2 games behind the division leading Pirates and are coming off a big series win.

Offense Breaks Out

In the Pirates series the Cubs were brutal in RISP going 4-for-35 (.114 avg) across those 3 games

In these 3 games the Cubs scored 28 runs across the 3 games. Of which 2 of those ended up in Cubs blowout wins.

They were much better with RISP going 15-for-44 (.341 avg) and of course we cant get to overwhelmed by the small sample size but this was the Cubs team many thought it would be.

Nico Hoerner had a fantastic series which included 2 home runs in the series and finished up with a 5 RBI night on Wednesday.

Dansby Swanson, Matt Shaw and Carson Kelly also had big series. This also came at the expense of some of the Cubs premier hitters still looking for consistency like Pete Crow-Armstrong, Bregman and Michael Busch.

The Cubs are gonna need more offensive firepower with the Mets, Dodgers, Phillies again and Padres coming fast on the schedule.