The surging Chicago Cubs visit the revived Washington Nationals for an important three-game series beginning on Friday.
The Cubs have won three straight and six of seven to propel themselves into the National League wild-card race while the Nationals, who continue to call up important pieces of their future, are fresh off a series win against the New York Yankees.
The Nationals will send right-hander Jake Irvin (9-10, 3.80 ERA) to the mound in the opener. Chicago has not named a starter.
Irvin has struggled in August, going 1-2 with a 5.46 ERA. However, in his last start he went 5 1/3 innings and allowed two runs on five hits in a no-decision against the Atlanta Braves.
That outing was part of an impressive stretch by Washington’s young rotation. Over their last nine games, Nationals starters have combined to post a 1.94 ERA and are striking out more than one batter per inning, according to MASN.
The latest strong effort was turned in by MacKenzie Gore, who went six innings, giving up two runs in a 5-2 win against the Yankees on Wednesday, his resurgence after summer struggles mirroring that of his fellow starters.
“I think we’ve all had our stretches where we didn’t pitch as well as we did early,” the 25-year-old lefty said. “When you get into some uncharted territory, where you’ve never been here before, you don’t want to just stop and pull up. You’ve got to figure out how to get through it.”
With the recent arrival of 22-year-old outfield prospect Dylan Crews following on the heels of 21-year-old James Wood’s debut, Washington’s lineup of the future continues to take shape. Playing in his third game, Crews — rated by MLB Pipeline as Washington’s No. 1 prospect and MLB’s No. 3 overall prospect — hit his first home run and added a double on Wednesday.
Every player in the Nationals’ starting lineup was 26 or younger.
“They’re going to grow together,” Washington manager Dave Martinez said. “We’re going to do some really good things, and a lot faster than people think.”
The Cubs, meanwhile, are trying to do something good this season and will enter Friday fifth in the NL wild-card chase.
Chicago rallied from a 10-3 sixth-inning deficit on Wednesday to stun the Pirates 14-10 and complete the series sweep. Chicago scored 41 runs in the series, just the fourth time since 1901 the Cubs scored that many runs in a series of three games or fewer, according to MLB.com.
Backup catcher Christian Bethancourt drove in seven runs, including a go-ahead two-run single in the ninth.
Signed as a free agent in July, the 32-year-old Bethancourt is hitting .407 (11-for-27) with four doubles, three homers and 15 RBIs.
“I don’t know how you can play better than he’s played,” manager Craig Counsell said. “It’s been sparing at-bats, and every time he’s in there, there are extra-base hits, there are RBIs, throwing out runners. He’s been unbelievable.”
Pete Crow-Armstrong had a career-high four hits for Chicago on Wednesday and is hitting .342 (26-for-76) over his past 23 games.
“We’ve strung together some good offensive performances,” said Ian Happ, who had three hits, two RBIs and two runs in Wednesday’s win. “Got to continue to do that.”
