The Chicago Cubs, on Friday, came from behind to win a game– again. They scored more than 10 runs– again. And, also again, there was another hero of the night.
The team’s thrilling 13-6 win over the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park was just another night in what has turned out to be an absolutely electric season.
Pete Crow-Armstrong rightfully garnered all the headlines with 2 home runs (one of them a grand slam) and 6 RBIs. Seiya Suzuki, however, went 3-for-5 with a home run and 3 RBIs to re-take status as the team– and the National League– leader in RBIs. Nico Hoerner also went 3-for-5, with a smart tag-evading slide in the seventh inning that kept the door open for PCA’s bases loaded bomb. Kyle Tucker and Dansby Swanson, by the way, also contributed with 2 RBIs apiece.
All of this “teamwork makes the dream work” multi-source production contributes to the feel-good buzz surrounding this Cubs team. It also makes one wonder whether this team, as it was put together, is slump-proof.
Are The 2025 Chicago Cubs ‘Slump-Proof?’
With so many potential heroes and offensive threats, combined with the steadily stellar defense fielded daily, it’s hard to envision the Cubs going through the kind of long dry spell that goes hand in hand with a morale-flattening losing streak. The team is good enough and deep enough so that someone, or multiple someones, will be hot as others grow cold.
Up until now, it sure looks as though Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer and the Chicago front office put together the right mix of players.
“That’s why Jed’s put this group together, knowing and understanding that we can overcome the different things that can be thrown our way,” Dansby Swanson told The Athletic after Friday’s win. “For the first five weeks of the season, we were just banging it around, (but) we don’t have to score 10 runs to win every game. It’s finding ways to win games, regardless.”
Constructing The Right Team For Wrigley
There was also a concerted effort in the offseason to construct a multi-faceted offensive team that accounted for the unpredictability of Wrigley Field. With some days being “hitters’ days” and others being “pitchers’ days” in the “friendly confines,” the 2025 club was put together so that they could win with power and/or speed.
“A lot of the offseason for me was about, where can we create advantages for our group of players?” manager Craig Counsell told Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic late last month. “It’s kind of like a therapist. You have to acknowledge Wrigley. There are 13 position players and 13 pitchers. Every day, one side’s pissed, one side’s happy. But we’ve got to win a baseball game.”
“When the wind is blowing in? The home run doesn’t exist. It’s baseball without a home run,” Counsell continued. “It’s really embracing that. And maybe if the other team doesn’t completely embrace that, we can get an advantage. It’s the same conditions. Can we just be a little ahead of it?”
…And The Pitching?
But, of course, there’s also the pitching, which hasn’t been as consistently impressive as the offense.
Hoyer, Counsell, and the crew are working on that. But with the team scoring about 6 runs per game and the defense firing on all cylinders, the pressure is off the pitching to an extent and there’s room to find the right fixes or rearrangements to get things working.
Baseball is an unpredictable game with constant ebbs and flows in momentum over the course of a long season. This 2025 Cubs team, though, seems as steady and as consistently electric as baseball-possible.
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