There's hot, and then there's whatever the Cubs are doing right now. They swept the Reds out of the building to start the run, and they haven't slowed down since. Michael Conforto turned into prime Bonds for a weekend, the lineup keeps cashing in big innings, and Wrigley has that mid-summer feel in early May.
A four-game broom job on the Reds kicked the streak into another gear.
The wild part is that the rotation should be a disaster. Injuries have gutted the staff, and yet Shota Imanaga and Ben Brown keep stepping over the wreckage and giving this team starts that win games. When your top 2 healthy arms are throwing like aces, you can survive almost anything else, and right now the Cubs are surviving everything else.
A snapshot of the duo carrying the rotation through the injury wave.
And then there's Pete Crow-Armstrong, who has decided he's simply not going to make outs anymore. He extended his on-base streak to 12 games with an RBI double, and the next night he was on base again to keep it rolling. The vibes-and-defense version of PCA was fun. This version, where he's also a problem in the box every single night, is the one that turns a hot team into a scary one.
PCA roping an RBI double to push the on-base streak to 12.
The supporting cast is humming too. Seiya Suzuki has been launching baseballs into the night, Nico Hoerner is doing Nico Hoerner things, and the kids are getting in on it — Jim Jarvis went full extension on a defensive play that had everyone clipping the highlight in real time. That's what 10-game winning streaks look like: stars carrying the load and role guys making the play that nobody planned on.
Jarvis laying out for a glove flash that traveled fast.
Ten in a row. The captions are running thin and the staff is taped together, but the only thing that matters is the W column. Play the music.
The walkoff vibes after win number 10.