The Good and Not So Good From Cubs vs Cardinals Series: Matt Shaw Powers Up

For the second straight series, the Chicago Cubs were unable to claim a series victory, as they dropped two of three games against their arch-rival Saint Louis Cardinals.

The Cubs only won the second game of the series and did so with an offensive onslaught that led to a nine to one victory.

Chicago (67-50) is still firmly in control of its destiny in the National League wild card picture, but its chances of winning the NL Central, which looks so good just six weeks ago, are slipping away.

The Chicago Cubs are off on Monday which is a travel day as they head north of the border to face the red-hot Toronto Blue Jays starting Tuesday.

Toronto leads the American League East Division and are one of the best home teams in all of baseball.

Now that Chicago is done with the Cardinals, here are some of the good and not-so-good things that came out of the series.

THE GOOD The Cubs offense has been choppy since the second half of the season began.

Well on Saturday night, it showed plenty of signs of life, signs that could be taken of a potential offensive upturn in the future.

The Cubs won that game, 9-1 , by jumping on starter Cardinals starter Andre Pallante early and not letting up.

Chicago was up 7-0 by the third inning.

Michael Busch dropped a three-run home run on the Cardinals in the second inning.

Catcher Carson Kelly had three hits in the contest.

The Cubs finished with 13 hits.

This is the Chicago offense that fans have been treated to most of the season.

Maintaining that level of excellence is difficult, if not impossible, for a 162-game baseball season.

Lulls are expected.

But as Chicago tries to run down Milwaukee in the National League Central, a prospect that is looking dimmer and dimmer, games like Saturday must be the norm and not the exception.

How much did the Cubs sign Colin Rea for? A $5 million deal with a $6 million club option? This looks like one of the savviest moves that president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer and his staff made this past offseason.

The 35-year-old right-hander got all the run support he needed on Saturday.

But he dealt anyway.

He threw six near-shutout innings, allowing one run in the sixth inning before he left the game.

He allowed three hits and two walks while he struck out six and trimmed his ERA to 4.09.

At the start of this season the Cubs had Rea come out of the bullpen as a long reliever.

But the season-ending elbow injury to Justin Steele forced Chicago to course correct and Rea moved into the rotation.

Entering this week, he is on pace to surpass his career high of 12 wins with Milwaukee last season.

As noted, signing Rea was a wise investment.

The development of Matt Shaw as a third baseman is important to the Cubs future if they want to continue to be contenders beyond this season.

The first-round pick in 2023 has worked hard to convert from being a college shortstop to a third baseman and in his past three games he's shown that his bat is starting to come around.

It started back at Wrigley against the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday.

He went 1-for-4 and scored a run.

The Cubs didnt slot him back into the lineup until Saturdays game.

But he took advantage of the extra time off and gave the Cubs a real offensive boost from the bottom of the order.

On Saturday he went 2-for-3 with a home run, two RBI, a walk and two runs in a 9-1 win.

On Sunday he was the entire offense for Chicago.

His two-run home run scored all two runs in a 3-2 loss as he went 1-for-4 with two RBI and a run.

That was four hits in 11 at-bats in three games.

It nudged up his slash to .228/.292/.392 for the season and to .263/.300/.842 in the last seven Games.

That includes three home runs.

The Cubs dont want Shaw to be their only source of power, as he was on Sunday.

But, as a power source at the bottom of the order when the top of the order is humming, as it was on Saturday? Chicago will take as much of that as Shaw is willing to provide down the stretch and in the postseason.

THE NOT SO GOOD It's not easy to figure out Chicago's offense right now.

As noted, the offense could not miss on Saturday night.

But in the opener on Friday and the finale on Sunday, the Cubs struggled to scratch together much of an offense.

The Cubs couldn't score a run on Friday night, losing 5-0 with the Cardinals Michael McGreevey on the mound.

Chicago managed just seven hits.

Busch, who slammed that home run in Saturday's game, went 0-for-4.

In fact, most of the top four hitters in the lineup failed to get a hit.

At least the Cubs scored two runs on Sunday but ended up losing 3-2.

Chicago managed eight hits in the game, which was delayed an hour by rain.

The only runs came from Matt Shaw, who had a two-run home run from the ninth spot in the order.

It's encouraging that Shaw's bat is coming around, but getting ones only offense from the nine-hole hitter is not encouraging.

The day off before the Toronto series is needed.

Sundays game was curious.

The Cardinals won, 3-2.

They did so with four hits, one of which was a home run by Pedro Pages, one of their worst hitters by average (.211 after Sundays game).

The home run was in the third inning and gave St.

Louis a 2-0 lead.

Chicago tied the game, but the Cardinals took the lead in the seventh inning also off Imanaga.

The Cardinals played some good old-fashioned National League baseball after Imanaga recorded the first two outs.

Jordan Walker singled.

He stole second.

He then scored from second on a Nolan Gorman single to right field, one in which right fielder Kyle Tucker didnt get to the plate in time.

He really didnt have a play, frankly.

St.

Louis won that game on four hits.

Four lousy hits.

St.

Louis didnt draw a single walk off Imanaga or reliever Brad Keller.

The Cardinals were 1-for-2 with runners in scoring position.

Gormans single was it.

St.

Louis only stranded one runner.

Imanaga would be well within his rights to get the hitters together and go, Guys, cmon.

Lets get it together.

The Cubs have won five of their last 10 games.

They have 67 victories, which is on par with the 68 victories that both the Philadelphia Phillies and the Los Angeles Dodgers possess.

If Chicago were in either the NL East or the NL West, it would be just one game out of first place.

But the Cubs have the misfortune of being in the NL Central.

The Milwaukee Brewers are on an absolute heater right now.

They have the best record in the National League at 73-44 and after sweeping the New York Mets at home, Milwaukee has now won nine of its last 10 games.

The Brew Crew has now grown a six-game lead over the Cubs in the division.

In an era with three wild card berths, being six games out of the division with roughly six weeks to go is not the end of the world.

After all, the Cubs have a lock on the top wild card berth, 4.5 games ahead of the final berth.

The top wild card spot does get you home playoff advantage.

But after that, the home field advantage disappears.

This may be something the Cubs have to live with.

But Chicago has one huge opportunity against Milwaukee coming up.

The Cubs get the Brewers for five games at home starting on Aug.

18, thanks to a rescheduled game after a weather postponement.

If Chicago wants to make a move, it may need to win all five of those games.

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