In a week when the Cubs really needed to take series, instead they lost two of three to the Diamondbacks and Reds.
Pete Crow-Armstrong, though, had himself a week.
Here’s who was hot and not for the Cubs over the past week.
Three up
It’s PCA’s world and we’re just living in it
I put these number in the recap to Sunday’s loss but they certainly bear repeating. Over these six games, PCA batted .321/.345/.893 (9-for-28) with a double, five home runs, eight RBI and six runs scored. That should make him a strong candidate for National League Player of the Week
— and also he’s got a good chance to be NL Player of the Month for August, having batted .283/.372/.726 (32-for-113) this month with six doubles, a triple, 14 home runs, 28 RBI and 28 runs scored, with one game remaining.
Here’s his three-homer game from Saturday [VIDEO].
Seiya Suzuki quietly put together a fine week
With all the attention being paid to PCA, it might be easy to overlook the contributions from the Cubs right fielder, who batted .346/.414/.615 (9-for-26) over the six games with four doubles, a home run and seven runs scored. And those numbers include him going 0-for-5 on Sunday!
Suzuki has set a career high for runs scored this year (81) and his .487 SLG and .853 OPS also currently stand as career bests. He’s played good defense this year. I hope the Cubs offer him a contract extension — he’s just a consistently good player, currently at 4.4 bWAR, also a career high.
Clay Holmes is exactly the guy the Cubs hoped he would be
Holmes threw seven outstanding shutout innings against the Diamondbacks last Tuesday, allowing just two hits.
In four starts as a Cub he has a 1.96 ERA and 0.957 WHIP, and overall he has a 2.26 ERA and 1.057 WHIP in 13 starts combined between the Cubs and Mets.
I would be 100 percent on board with Craig Counsell giving Holmes the Game 1 start in a postseason series.
Three down
Jacob Webb had another blown save
Webb had been lights-out before the debacle in Seattle last Saturday, and then he had another one in Arizona on Tuesday, serving up his second walk-off homer in three days.
Counsell gave Webb a few days off to re-set, and he did throw a scoreless inning on Sunday against the Reds. The Cubs need Webb to be good going forward. His history this year suggests he will be.
Shōta Imanaga, yikes
Imanaga now leads MLB with 33 home runs allowed, one more than Aaron Nola of the Phillies.
Counsell said “the Cubs need Shōta to be good” in his postgame remarks after Sunday’s game, but it’s an open question in my mind regarding whether the Cubs should bypass him for a start or more before the end of the season. He’ll likely be scheduled to start against the Marlins in Miami on Friday, but after that his next turn would come up a week from Wednesday in Milwaukee, so … maybe skip that one? Use an opener? It should be noted that Imanaga has been a bit better on the road (3.65 ERA in 11 starts) than at Wrigley Field (4.23 ERA in 16 starts).
Trent Thornton might have run out of gas
Thornton got smacked with three Reds home runs in the last two games of the series out of just 12 batters faced.
That’s too bad, because that came off of a string of 11 consecutive scoreless appearances. As is the case for Webb, the Cubs need Thornton to be good. Can he recover?
