Cubs First To Clinch

Not exactly the way they wanted to do it, but the end result in the Windy City has been a long time coming. After six years of missing the playoffs, Chicago ended that drought last year making the playoffs for the first time in six years. They took that wave of momentum all the way to the NLCS before getting swept by the Mets. That caused some re-tooling over the winter. Ben Zobrist and Jason Heyward were added into the lineup, one which was already loaded. The question wasn't will they, but when would they, lock up a playoff spot? Well that was answered yesterday as the Cubs have locked up a National League Central crown for the first time since back to back Central titles in 2007 & 2008.

I'm sure this wasn't exactly the way the Cubs pictured winning their first division title since 2008, but they will take it anyway they can get it. Heading into yesterday's action, the magic number in Chicago was one. All they had to do was win and the division was their's. But that didn't happen, as the Cubs fell to the Brewers 5-4. All was not lost though once that game ended against the Brewers. If the Cubs wanted to win the division, they needed a little help out west. They got it. San Francisco knocked off the Cardinals, 6-2. With the Cards loss, that puts them a full 17 games back of the Cardinals in the NL Central, all of this coming now with 16 games remaining in the season. Yes that's right, it handed the Chicago Cubs the NL Central title.

Since 2008, the Cubs last Central title, the division has gone to three different teams. St. Louis won in 2009, Cincinnati won in 2010, then Milwaukee won in 2011, followed by the Reds again in 2012, and finally the Cardinals each of the last three seasons. In fact, this year marks the third time in the modern era of the franchise that the Cubs have qualified for the postseason in back-to-back years, also doing so from 1906-1908 and 2007-2008. To make this even stranger, this is the second straight year that the Cubs have locked up a playoff spot thanks to another team losing (WGN).

Now, back to this years Cubs. This team has been playing out of their mind. Anthony Rizzo and MVP Candidate (at least in my mind) Kris Bryant have been powering this offense, both guys have over 30 homers on the year (Rizzo has 31, Bryant has 37). Addison Russell, too, has been very productive, knocking in 91 runs this season. Right now, Chicago has seven hitters that have over 100 hits this season, Bryant, Rizzo, Russell, Ben Zobrist, Dexter Fowler, Jason Heyward and Javier Baez. They've been getting clutch hitting at clutch times this year.

Then there's the pitching staff. Jake Arrieta is coming off his Cy Young Award win last year with another fine season this year. He is 17-6 on the year with a 2.91 ERA and 171 strikeouts. You think that's good, look at the guy right behind him in the rotation, Jon Lester. Lester is 17-4 with a 23.40 ERA and 179 strikeouts. Finally, there's the other 15 game winner in this starting rotation, Kyle Hendricks. Hendricks is 15-7 with a team low (at least among the starters) 2.03 ERA and 152 strikeouts. The only knock on Hendricks, if you want to call it a knock, is that he has fewer innings pitched right now then Arrieta and Lester. Lester has thrown 184 innings, Arrieta has thrown 179.1 innings. Hendricks has tossed 173 innings. Sure that's a little nit picking, but some people are even throwing his name around in conversation for the Cy Young award in the National League this year.

Still with all that being said, the Cubs have had a fantastic year and can now focus on nailing down the best record in the NL, to keep home field advantage throughout the playoffs. Cubs fans have been waiting a long time for something like this. Joe Madden looks like he has the Cubs primed and ready to end one of the longest championship droughts in all of professional sports. That's still a ways away. First step is out of the way with the Cubs winning the NL Central!