Ortiz will not be in the Milwaukee Brewers’ lineup for Monday’s game against the Chicago Cubs.
He is on the bench for the third time in six games as he begins to lose playing time on the left side of Milwaukee’s infield. Ortiz is expected to continue receiving regular starts against left-handed pitchers, while Cooper Pratt and David Hamilton are likely to get priority against right-handers.
Source: www.cbssports.com
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The Atlanta Braves will pursue their eighth consecutive win Monday in a makeup game against the San Francisco Giants. San Francisco is trying to avoid finishing with the worst record in MLB. The Giants are 56-81, with only three teams recording fewer victories.
Atlanta holds a five-game lead over the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL East but had lost five of six games before beginning its current winning streak. The Braves enter the matchup after sweeping the Dodgers and Rockies. Bryce Elder (8-7, 3.95 ERA) is scheduled to face Anthony Molina (1-0, 2.89 ERA) in a matchup between right-handed pitchers.
The SportsLine Projection Model, which simulates every game 10,000 times, gives Atlanta a 67% win probability and assigns a B grade to the Under 9 runs, which hits 52.5% of the time.
The Chicago Cubs trail the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central, but they can gain ground Monday when the teams begin a three-game series. Left-hander Kyle Harrison (10-3, 2.79 ERA) is scheduled to start for the Brewers, who own an eight-game division lead.
Chicago is tied for the top NL wild-card position and, along with the Phillies, holds a 4.5-game lead in the wild-card standings. The Cubs will send right-hander Clay Holmes (5-6, 2.26 ERA) to the mound as they look to end a difficult stretch. Chicago has lost seven of its past 10 games.
The SportsLine model gives Milwaukee a 53% win probability, while Chicago is covering the +1.5 run line in 64% of simulations.
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The Cubs needed to win series this week but instead dropped two of three games to the Arizona Diamondbacks and Cincinnati Reds. Pete Crow-Armstrong, however, had an outstanding stretch. Here is who was hot and who struggled for the Cubs over the past week.
The numbers from Pete Crow-Armstrong’s week are worth repeating. Across six games, PCA batted .321/.345/.893 (9-for-28) with a double, five home runs, eight RBIs and six runs scored.
That production should make him a strong candidate for National League Player of the Week. He also has a strong chance to win NL Player of the Month honors for August. With one game remaining, Crow-Armstrong is batting .283/.372/.726 (32-for-113) this month, with six doubles, a triple, 14 home runs, 28 RBIs and 28 runs scored.
Here’s his three-homer game from Saturday [VIDEO].
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With so much attention focused on Crow-Armstrong, it would be easy to overlook the Cubs right fielder’s contributions. Suzuki batted .346/.414/.615 (9-for-26) over the six games, recording four doubles, one home run and seven runs scored. Those numbers include an 0-for-5 performance Sunday.
Suzuki has established a career high with 81 runs scored this season. His .487 slugging percentage and .853 OPS also currently rank as career bests. He has played strong defense as well and is at 4.4 bWAR, another career high. The Cubs should consider offering him a contract extension because he has been a consistently productive player.
Clay Holmes threw seven outstanding scoreless innings against the Diamondbacks last Tuesday, allowing only two hits.
Through four starts with the Cubs, Holmes has a 1.96 ERA and a 0.957 WHIP. Across 13 starts with the Cubs and Mets, he owns a 2.26 ERA and a 1.057 WHIP.
I would be fully on board with Craig Counsell giving Holmes the Game 1 assignment in a postseason series.
Jacob Webb had been dominant before his collapse in Seattle last Saturday. He then struggled again in Arizona on Tuesday, allowing his second walk-off home run in three days.
Counsell gave Webb several days off to reset, and Webb responded by throwing a scoreless inning Sunday against the Reds. The Cubs need him to pitch well going forward, and his performance earlier this season suggests he can do that.
Imanaga now leads Major League Baseball with 33 home runs allowed, one more than Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola.
Counsell said “the Cubs need Shōta to be good” in his postgame remarks after Sunday’s game. Still, it remains an open question whether the Cubs should skip Imanaga for one start or more before the regular season ends.
Imanaga will likely be scheduled to start against the Miami Marlins in Miami on Friday. His next turn after that would come a week later on Wednesday in Milwaukee, which raises the possibility of skipping that start or using an opener.
Imanaga has been somewhat better on the road, where he has a 3.65 ERA in 11 starts, than at Wrigley Field, where he has a 4.23 ERA in 16 starts.
Trent Thornton allowed three Reds home runs over the final two games of the series, facing only 12 batters.
The rough outings ended a streak of 11 consecutive scoreless appearances. Like Webb, the Cubs need Thornton to pitch effectively down the stretch. The key question is whether he can recover.
Pete Crow-Armstrong continued his historic power surge for the Chicago Cubs, launching a 98.9 mph fastball from Cincinnati Reds pitcher Chase Burns into the right-field seats at 108 mph exit velocity, according to Statcast.
The home run was Crow-Armstrong’s ninth leadoff homer of the season, moving him within three of Alfonso Soriano’s Cubs record of 12, set in 2007.
Six of Crow-Armstrong’s leadoff home runs have come this month, giving him one of the most productive power stretches from the top spot in a lineup in baseball history. Kyle Schwarber, in June 2021, and Soriano, in September 2007, share the MLB record with seven leadoff homers in a single month, according to MLB.com’s Sarah Langs.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Crow-Armstrong is the fourth player in MLB history to hit a leadoff home run one game after a three-homer performance. Schwarber on Sept. 4, 2024, Brian Dozier on Sept. 6, 2016, and Mookie Betts on June 1, 2016, are the other players on the list.
Earlier this month, Crow-Armstrong led off with a home run on Aug. 18, one game after homering on both the first and last pitches of a Cubs victory over the Chicago White Sox.
Crow-Armstrong now has 37 home runs this season, putting him within reach of a milestone rarely achieved by a left-handed Cubs hitter. Only one left-handed batter in franchise history has hit 40 home runs in a season: Billy Williams, who hit 42 in 1970.
With 30 home runs since the start of June, Crow-Armstrong has six more than any other Major League player during that span.
The Cubs center fielder also has 32 stolen bases, giving him a realistic chance to complete a 40-40 season. The feat has been achieved only six times in MLB history, most recently by Shohei Ohtani in 2024.
Crow-Armstrong is already the only player in Cubs history to record 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases in consecutive seasons. He has also joined Sammy Sosa, who accomplished the feat in 1993 and 1995, as one of only two players in franchise history with two 30-30 seasons.
Alex Bregman could not stop smiling as he rounded third base and headed home for the third time Monday night at Wrigley Field. The home run came on a looping pitch from Brewers position player Andrew Vaughn, but the drive into the left-field bleachers counted just the same.
Bregman’s eighth-inning blast in the Cubs’ 17-3 rout of Milwaukee capped a record-setting night for Chicago’s power offense. The North Siders hit a franchise-record nine home runs in one game and set a National League record with 62 homers in August.
“It’s pretty awesome,”
Bregman led the offensive charge with three home runs for the second three-homer game of his career. Both performances came within a few weeks of each other. Tyrone Taylor and Nico Hoerner hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning, while Seiya Suzuki and Bregman did the same in the fourth. Carson Kelly, Matt Shaw and Michael Conforto also homered.
The emphatic victory came as the NL Wild Card-leading Cubs attempt to close the gap on Milwaukee in the NL Central. The Brewers still hold a seven-game lead over Chicago, but the teams are playing seven games against each other over a 10-day stretch, giving the Cubs an opportunity to make the division race more competitive.
“You could kind of feel their energy,”
Cubs starter Clay Holmes said after throwing six shutout innings.
“After a couple series that we lost, you could tell that the position-player group really wanted to come out strong. And you can feel that. To be able to put a zero up there in the first and kind of let them do their thing was nice.”
Even Pete Crow-Armstrong, who hit five home runs over the previous two games, did not go deep in the victory. Five of Chicago’s homers came against Brewers left-hander Kyle Harrison. Vaughn, primarily a first baseman, allowed the final three home runs while covering the last two innings of Milwaukee’s blowout loss.
“The position-player stuff gets a little ridiculous at the end there, honestly,”
Cubs manager Craig Counsell said.
“That’s great we set a record. And the guys aren’t going to stop hitting. Guys are not going to stop hitting. They’re going to take advantage of it, and they should. They absolutely should. We’ll take it.”
Chicago’s historic power surge produced an extraordinary list of statistical achievements:
The Cubs’ record-setting month left Bregman impressed with the consistency of the lineup.
“It was a good month, just driving the baseball,”
Bregman said.
“The quality of the at-bat in the second half, it’s been super consistent up and down the lineup. And it’s been tough on opposing teams.”
CHICAGO — The Chicago Cubs have activated Matt Shaw from the 10-day injured list, restoring the versatile infielder to the super-utility role that strengthens the team’s bench and gives manager Craig Counsell more options during games.
Shaw returned before Friday’s game against the Cincinnati Reds at Wrigley Field after recovering from a persistent left hand injury. To make room on the active roster, the Cubs optioned outfielder Kevin Alcántara to Triple-A Iowa.
“He just makes the roster better,” Counsell said of Shaw.
Shaw recently began making progress while building back up to facing live pitching. He completed a Minor League rehab assignment with Triple-A Iowa, appearing in five games and batting .316 (6-for-19). He also played in back-to-back games Tuesday and Wednesday without experiencing lingering pain.
“I finally could get the full-effort swings,” Shaw said. “I don’t really know why it happened. It was a normal swing that it ended up getting hurt on, so it’s one of those things where I’ve just got to keep strengthening it, put it in a good place and go out there and play. I can’t worry about fluke injuries like that. I’ve just got to keep playing.”
Shaw is batting .246/.322/.415 with four home runs, 20 RBIs, a .737 OPS and a 104 OPS+ in 56 games for the Cubs this season. After serving as Chicago’s primary third baseman as a rookie last year, he has moved around the infield and added the outfield to his responsibilities this season. Shaw posted an .899 OPS in the 12 games before his injury.
Counsell said Shaw will resume his role as a super sub while making occasional starts, particularly against left-handed pitching. His versatility can give Chicago’s regular infielders and outfielders rest while also providing a late-game option as a pinch-runner, pinch-hitter or defensive replacement.
“Matt does a bunch of things well,” Counsell said. “You don’t know which game you’re going to run into that situation [where you need a late-game replacement]. Frankly, most games you don’t with our roster. But, there’s going to be some days where we do run into it and he’s valuable when he’s on the bench.”