Pitching leads and Cubs and White Sox resurgence

After a disastrous start to their season, the Cubs are trudging along towards respectability.  The much maligned pitching is leading the way.  Yu Darvish got the start for the Cubs Monday night and went 5.2 innings and gave up only two runs in the Cubs 7-2 win over the Marlins. 

Cubs undergoing a bust reduction?

Darvish’s command was shaky, as he walked four and performed a near circumcision with an inside fastball, but his stuff was electric.  Yu struck out eight.  While he has basically been a bust thus far, Monday’s night makes it seems like there could be a bust reduction in progress.  Willson Contreras continued his power surge with his sixth home run of the season.  That’s a huge deal in light of his power outage in the second half of last season.

Tuesday night Jose Quintana took the hill for the Cubs and strung together another seven shutout innings in the Cubs 4-0 win over the Marlins.  Brandon Kinzler and Pedro Strop each pitched a scoreless frame to complete the shutout. 

Javy Baez is becoming the face of the Cubs

Javy Baez had three hits, including his 5^th homer while Jason Heyward, David Bote and Daniel Descalso each had two hits.  Heyward is hitting .362 with power and Descalso is at a healthy .341.  I’m starting to believe Heyward is actually better this season.  If that’s the case, that’s a game changer for the Cubs.  Descalso also looks to be a very helpful addition.  Maybe the Cubs offseason wasn’t quite the dud it was thought to be.

Santana changes his evil ways

Meanwhile, the White Sox have actually put together a three game winning streak.  After knocking off the Yankees Sunday, Monday night the Sox prevailed over the Royals 5-4 by virtue of a late two-run homer by Wellington Castillo .  Reclamation project, Ervin Santana, shook off some rust and looked better in his second outing with the Sox.  Santana went five innings, giving up three runs.  More importantly, he looked better has he went along.

Sox pen is taking shape

Tuesday night, the generally disappointing Reynaldo Lopez went to the hill and after a rough first inning, managed to go six innings, giving up only one run in the Sox 5-1 win over the Royals.  Reynaldo gave up five hits and two walks while striking out five.  After that, Jace Fry and Nate Jones combined for a scoreless seventh inning while Kelvin Herrera pitched a scoreless eighth, striking out two.  Alex Colome came in and closed things out with a scoreless ninth.  The Sox bullpen is staring to legitimately take shape.

The batting order is getting longer

All the Sox runs were the result of home runs.  Yoan Moncada had two solo homers while Leury Garcia had the big blow, a two-run homer that put the Sox up 3-1 at the time. Yonder Alonso added a solo homer in the eighth.   Yoan Moncada looks to legitimately being turning the corner.    Additionally, I suspect Leury Garcia is a decent player if he can manage to stay healthy.  The White Sox batting order is definitely getting longer.  With a more aggressive front office the Sox could contend in this weak division now.

The Breadman is going to get some serious dough

Before I close things out, I saw the Columbus Blue Jackets swept the Tampa Bay Lightning.  The final score was 6-3, but two of those goals were empty netters.  That great Tampa Bay regular season doesn’t mean a thing now.  From Columbus’ point of view, Artemi Panarin looked great.  The Breadman is an unrestricted free agent.  The Bradman is going to make some serious dough.  In addition, the Blue Jackets run shows the value of not tanking and worrying about draft position.  It’s also an example of why the NHL playoffs are the most exciting playoffs in sports.