PITTSBURGH – Paul Skenes is the type of pitcher the Cubs are going to have to beat if they’re going to make a deep October run.
They showed they’re capable of taking it to the game’s best by pounding Skenes, the reigning NL Cy Young winner, and the Pirates on Saturday night, scoring an 11-0 blowout win.
The big righty cruised early, striking out nine Cubs hitters in four innings. But while he reached a season-high 11 strikeouts, he gave up three runs on four straight hits in the fifth and was lifted after back-to-back batters reached in the sixth.
They both scored, and Skenes ended up with five runs on his tab.
It was another banner night for All-Star center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong, who won two of his three showdowns with Skenes and had four hits on the night, homering and coming a triple shy of his second cycle of the season.
Skenes is good as big league arms come, once again a candidate for the sport’s top pitching award in a crowded NL field.
But Crow-Armstrong is having a simply spectacular season, making the case that he is – as the award states – the most valuable player in baseball. He came into Saturday leading the game’s position players with 6.6 fWAR.
“You’ve got to remind yourself how old he is,” lefty starter Matthew Boyd said Friday of his 24-year-old teammate. “The jumps that he’s taking are really impressive.
“His approach at the plate, the way he continues to seek out knowledge from guys that have more experience and adapt it to his game and continuing to grow in his own game and grow from mistakes, whether it’s last year or early in [this year], and building off of it and turning them into strengths, it’s so impressive.”
From Steel City to the North Side
Left fielder Ian Happ walked Saturday to extend his on-base streak in his hometown of Pittsburgh to a remarkable 43 games, the longest such streak in the history of PNC Park.
A night earlier, Happ did it all in an extra-inning Cubs win, making big plays with his bat, with his glove and on the base paths.
“Ian’s amazing,” Boyd said Saturday. “It speaks to what he is as a player, what he means to this team.”
Whether Happ’s 10th season on the North Side is his last – like outfield-mate Seiya Suzuki, Happ’s slated to hit free agency after the season – his experience with the organization has proven valuable inside the Cubs’ clubhouse.
“He truly embodies what it means to be a Cub,” Boyd said. “He plays the game the right way. You hear his ovation every time he jogs out to left field, from the bleachers. It’s special. Some of those things might seem irrelevant to some people, but it is special.
“He knows the gravity of putting on those pinstripes and what it means to the city and the fans.
“He’s a direct connection to that 2016 team, too, and he got to play around a lot of champions. Whenever you get to be on a championship squad and you get to be around championship players, that stuff wears off on you. He carries himself like a pro, and you can’t put a price tag on that. It’s valuable to all of us.”
Shota shoves
Lefty starting pitcher Shota Imanaga threw six shutout frames Saturday and has been excellent since a sour four-start stretch early in the summer, with a 2.00 ERA in his last eight outings, a boon for an injury-plagued Cubs pitching staff.