A little over two weeks ago, the Cubs wrapped up a 6-1 homestand against the Dodgers, Rockies and Cardinals and were looking like bullies.
The big, bad Dodgers still stood in the center of the National League schoolyard, stacked and dangerous, but the Cubs appeared — especially with the signing of free-agent closer Craig Kimbrel — to be the team that could give the two-time-defending league champs the best fight in October.
Maybe that’s still true. The division rival Brewers and Cardinals probably would beg to differ. And the Braves? Heck, they’d laugh out loud. That’s one confident, fearless NL East-leading team that showed up this week at Wrigley Field.
The Braves are coming for everybody’s lunch money.
“We’re a young team, we’re extremely talented, we’ve got some veteran presence, and we play a great brand of baseball,” catcher Brian McCann said. “We’re exciting on all levels. Just add it up. We know we can play with anybody.”
McCann likens the Braves to the World Series-winning 2017 Astros, who were already in championship-or-bust mode by the time fans around the country began to grasp how excellent they were. You can bet that has been kicked around in conversations with new starting pitcher Dallas Keuchel, who signed with the Braves on the same day — June 7 — the Cubs signed Kimbrel.
The addition of Keuchel, a two-time All-Star and former Cy Young winner in Houston, makes this Braves roster just plain sing.
“The team on the field matches up with any team on the field, period,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said.
According to reliever Josh Tomlin, the Braves are “very, very similar” — in both quality and demeanor — to the 2016 Indians. Tomlin started a pair of World Series games that year against the Cubs.
“We’re just a bunch of dirtbags who love playing baseball,” he said. “Egos? You check ’em at the door every day. That’s what’s special about this group: a bunch of young, talented individuals who know they’re good, but they don’t act like superstars; they don’t act like they’re entitled to anything. That’s like the group we built in Cleveland.”
How would a Cubs-Braves playoff series go? Well, we have no idea; it’s June.
But the Braves needed only five games to clinch the seven-game season series between the teams, winning for the fourth time Tuesday night behind young left-hander Max Fried. And the early-season three-game sweep in Atlanta, during which the Cubs were outscored 23-8, was pretty brutal.
A blazing record since May 10 — when manager Brian Snitker moved 21-year-old outfielder Ronald Acuna into the leadoff spot — has put the Braves on a pace to chase 100 wins. The Cubs, by the way, are under .500 since Maddon made Kyle Schwarber his leadoff man in mid-May. The Braves entered Wednesday with a 29-13 mark since Snitker made the move with Acuna, who was the 2018 NL rookie of the year.
“I think they’re near the very top,” Maddon said. “I like them a lot.”
When October rolls around, Cubs fans might not like those dirtbags at all.
JUST SAYIN’
Speaking of Fried, this might be the last guy the Cubs want to face in the postseason. As a team, they are 3-for-45 (.067) all-time against him at the plate, not to mention 0-for-3 in the win column. Even the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw, the Southern California-bred Fried’s idol, would be jealous of those numbers.
• Shouldn’t last season have taught me better than to talk about the Cubs and the playoffs as though the two going together in 2019 is a given?
• Did you catch the ridiculous comments made by Braves broadcaster Jeff Francoeur after Monday night’s dust-up involving Cubs catcher Willson Contreras?
Recalling his own run-in — which really was just a stare-down — with Contreras as a player in 2016, Francoeur said: “Quite frankly, I wish I’d have just thrown the haymaker and been done with it.”
This is Francoeur we’re talking about. Anyone who watched him play knows he would’ve swung and missed.
• Keuchel and Cubs infielder David Bote: separated at birth?
Seriously, if they switched beards and uniforms, nobody would notice.
David Bote and Dallas Keuchel: separated at birth? #Cubs #Braves pic.twitter.com/YHp0Tfdpif
— Steve Greenberg (@SLGreenberg) June 24, 2019
• Worse day for White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson: Monday, when he went 0-for-5 with four strikeouts, vs. Tuesday, when he went 2-for-3 with a double and a run before spraining his ankle.
Discuss.
• I had a chance to meet Blackhawks first-round pick Kirby Dach Monday night in the Wrigley Field press box. Shook his hand. Wished him well.
“Now remember,” I told him. “It’s ‘Cracker Jack’ — no ‘S’ at the end. And it’s ‘I don’t care if I NEVER get back.’ Please be the one guy who gets those lyrics right.”
The 18-year-old Canadian looked at me with an expression of pure befuddlement.
Only after I returned to my seat did I discover that he wasn’t even there to sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”
Now that’s what I call making a first impression.
