Before the Cubs won the 2016 World Series, winning 8 of the last games would have been remarkable. However, now it’s not enough. They are second in the NL Central and ten games over 500. The Brewers have won four more games to lead the Division and only Boston has more victories with 40 so far this season. The Cubs are 8-1 against the Brewers, 3-3 versus the Pirates, 3-2 playing the Reds, and 1-4 against the Cardinals, so there inter-division record now stands at 15-10. I’m off to see the Cubs vs. Cards rivalry next week at Busch Stadium, and hoping for better success.

One of the big issues for the Cubs has been strike outs, particularly in key scoring situations. Yesterday, the Cubbies struck-out 24 times, a season high. It was a 14-inning game, but if you think about it that’s 8 full innings of nothing but strike outs. Jacob deGrom of the Mets recorded 13 of those K’s in 7 innings of work. Kerry Wood of the Cubs, Roger Clemens with the Red Sox, and Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals hold the Major League record with 20 strikeouts each in a standard nine-inning game. (See Post #522). Charlie Sweeney of the Providence Grays was the first professional player to achieve the 18 K level back in 1884, a mark that’s now held by twenty different pitchers. Five pitchers – Steve Carlton, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Nolan Ryan, and Tom Seaver are the only members of the 3,000 strike out club. Kerry Wood only got to slightly more than half of this Hall of Fame mark in 14 seasons with the Cubs, Yankees, and Indians.

The 24 strike outs in one game tied a Cubs record from back in 2003 against the Brewers, but that took 17 innings to “accomplish.” This time, they were able to only do it in 14! Of course, my struggling White Sox beat that dubious record last year against the Yankees with 26 in 18 innings. This ties the all-time team total for both leagues. To make matters worse, in 2017, the Cubs combined with the Yankees for 48 strikeouts in 18 long innings of play. That’s some great pitching, poor hitting, or both. The remarkable thing about the Cubs game is that despite the 24 strike outs, they somehow still managed to win 7-1 after scoring 6 runs in the top of the 14th.

The IU Baseball team got hammered by Texas A&M two days ago in the NCAA Regional Tournament in Austin, Texas by striking out 15 times, proving once again that you can’t win if you don’t hit the ball. On the other hand, Oregon State, playing in their own Regional struck out 9 against Northwestern State and 6 against LSU to win both games handily. Indiana did win an elimination game against Texas Southern for another chance to beat the Aggies this afternoon.

Jon Lester gave up only 2 hits today in seven innings to lead the Cubs to their first 4-game road-sweep of the season versus the Mets. I did not watch the game for fear that I might jinx them. I did, however, monitor the 9th inning of the Cards vs. Pirates, as Michael Wacha failed to complete a no-hitter, As soon as I tuned in, the Pirates got a base hit. My friends urge me not to watch games on TV, since our teams tend to lose when I do, so it feels good to have put the whammy on the evil Cardinals. In another game I didn’t watch, baseball’s worst team, the Chicago White Sox, are about to upset the Brewers and perhaps win that series, helping the crosstown Cubs in the standings. Plus, I’m still reluctantly tuned into the IU collegiate game against A&M, but the ESPN network did not switch to the game until after the Hoosiers had already scored 6. Surprisingly, they did hit a 3-run homer before my very eyes to make it a 9-run first, but have since given back 5 of those runs, letting the Aggies back in it. I should switch to something else before the Hoosiers strike-out.