Record: 4-2 (3-0 vs. White Sox, 1-2 vs. Arizona)

The Cubs, the mighty, mighty Cubs DESTROYED the White Sox in three games by a combined score of 24-6 to earn their first BP Cup since the 1908 championship season (at least it felt that long). The starting pitching was again the quality of the mid-90’s Atlanta Braves as Jeff Samardzija, Scott Feldman and Travis Wood earned the wins. Samardzija threw a 2-hit shutout Monday to highlight the pitching prowess of this season’s North Siders, while Travis Wood backed his pitching performance with a grand slam in Thursday’s beatdown.

Many Cubs were seen around town with the BP Cup, celebrating as if it was Lord Stanley’s Cup:
–Scott Hairston took the Cup to Second City Thursday night.
–Anthony Rizzo took the Cup to Gibson’s Friday night.
–Starlin Castro took the Cup to an actual BP to fill up his tank and get a snack Saturday afternoon.

The Cubs announced there will be a BP Cup parade on Thursday running north on Clark from Addison to Waveland. The parade will run from 2 to 2:15pm.

While the weekend ended up with losses in two of three to the Snakes, Matt Garza did earn his first win of the year in Friday’s 7-2 win, which also featured the second Cubbie grand slam of the week, belted by Scott Hairston.

MVP: Dioner Navarro. The catcher hit three home runs in Wednesday’s 9-3 spanking of the Sox and was, for a moment, more famous than his brother Dave Navarro (Jane’s Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers). He also earned hazard pay for putting his body in front of Edwin Jackson’s baseball grenades (four wild pitches) on Sunday while drawing a bases-loaded walk to give the Cubs a lead they failed to hold.

LVP: Edwin Jackson. Lost the rubber game to the D-backs on Sunday, uncorking those aforementioned four wild pitches and scaring young children in attendance.

Ask the Magic 8-Ball: Will Anthony Rizzo finish the season with a .300 average, .850 OPS, 5.5 WAR, .450 weighted OBP, .800 OPS+, .670 Own %, BtWins .6 wit an ISO of .290?

Magic 8-Ball says: “WTF?”

Patrick O. Elia