Cubs Week in Review: Wins Pile Up, But So Do Injuries

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Image courtesy of © Matt Marton-Imagn Images

You could call the Cubs' rash of injury troubles a bug, but lately, that feels insufficient. With the club's fiery closer Daniel Palencia the latest to go down with an oblique strain, the "bug" this squad is up against is more akin to one of Godzilla's adversaries than a gnat you swat away while waiting for the Purple Line. 

Fortunately, there have been signs of lift from the sleeping giant that was the Cubs' offense over the first two-plus weeks. With Javier Assad taking the ball for the Cubs in the first of their three-game set versus the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park last week, the lineup awoke. The Cubs scratched seven runs across the plate in that contest. The trouble is, the home team tallied 13. Craig Counsell's pitching staff labored, surrendering runs to Philadelphia in all but two innings. Former Cubs hero Kyle Schwarber had no hesitation in making life difficult for his former squad, launching a three-run homer that set the tone early.

As Schwarber well knows, success is the perfect revenge, and the North Siders exacted theirs in the middle game of the series. Chicago erased an early 3-0 deficit on the strength of a balanced offensive output from the visitors—especially Nico Hoerner and Carson Kelly, who combined for six RBIs. Hoerner, with his consistently elite play at both the plate and second base, is the clear leader of this club and the driving force behind his team's recent success. 

Suddenly needed to be something like an ace again, Shota Imanaga is either on the cusp of his 2024 All-Star form or already there. It's not that he doesn't surrender the long ball anymore, like the solo shot he gave up early to Trea Turner in the rubber game of last week's set, but his penchant for recovery is impressive. He takes any blemish personally. Imanaga went on to tie a career-high in strikeouts, with 11 of them over six solid innings. The Cubs used four scoring innings, showing both power and situational hitting. Hoerner racked up 5 RBIs with a 3-for-5 day at the plate. Matt Shaw, who has been on an upward trajectory, enjoyed his best offensive day of the year with a 3-for-4 outing, collecting three doubles. It was the rare case this season in which the offense not only rolled, but the Cubs also were terrific defensively, allowing virtually zero meaningful scoring opportunities for the Phillies. The 11-2 romp earned the North Siders an impressive series win on the road. 

The team rode that wave back to Wrigley Field, for a weekend set against the Mets. Edward Cabrera took the bump for his fourth start as a Cub. His teammates plated four runs in the opening frame, giving him some margin for error. Moisés Ballesteros and Hoerner both homered in an easy 12-4 win to open a seven-game homestand.

Their loss Friday was the Mets' ninth in a row; they're often beating themselves. With Freddy Peralta returning to Wrigley Field—a place that became his personal house of horrors in October 2025—that trend didn't change. Even though the Cubs only took this contest by a 4-2 score, it's how they did it that made spectators take note. Ian Happ's solo homer off of his old adversary sparked the home crowd, but it was Kelly's pinch-hit, three-run blast in a tie game in the sixth inning that got the party started in earnest.

Having already secured the series win, the North Siders took the field Sunday in search of their first sweep of the 2026 regular season. In the eleventh hour, they found it. Bouncing back from a laborious start earlier in the week, Javier Assad cruised through the first third of the game with relative ease. A solo shot from the Mets' MJ Melendez was the only disruption to what was otherwise a dominant showing from Assad. Though held scoreless through the first eight innings of this contest, the North Siders frequently put runners on base, most notably via a leadoff triple from Pete Crow-Armstrong to kick off the third.

Pinch-hitting in the bottom of the ninth inning, Michael Conforto laced a double into the corner in deep right field, scoring pinch-runner Scott Kingery to tie the game against another former divisional foe, Devin Williams. A gutsy 10th-inning relief appearance from newly-minted closer Caleb Thielbar set the stage for the home team to deliver walk-off magic. With one out and the zombie runner Crow-Armstrong standing 90 feet away, Hoerner came through with a game-winning sacrifice fly. The dramatic finish not only marked the club's fifth straight win, but vaulted them three games over .500 and out of the cellar of the National League Central. 

Good teams find ways to win. At the outset of a four-game series with the Phillies at Wrigley, this feels like a good team, despite its many injury issues. They've benefited from some good luck and they've beaten themselves once or twice this year, but after a tough start, they're finding their groove a bit. If they can survive the pitching crisis and get their key hitters out of early funks, they'll really be on to something.

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