Chicago's pitching staff dominates, boasting baseball's best ERA since April 14. This has fueled an eight-game winning streak.
A lot has been made about the Chicago Cubs offense during their current eight-game winning streak.
They have scored at least seven runs in five of their past eight games, and the offense is averaging 7.25 runs per game during this winning streak. Several Cubs hitters are also starting to heat up at the plate.
Alex Bregman is batting .333 with six RBI in his last 12 games. Pete Crow-Armstrong is hitting .345 with three extra-base hits across his last eight games. Seiya Suzuki has homered in back-to-back games, and Nico Hoerner is already up to four home runs on the season.
While the offense has carried the team recently, the rotation deserves some credit for its play during this eight-game winning streak as well.
The Cubs have the best ERA (2.22) in baseball since April 14. This stretch has included strong pitching performances from Colin Rea, Shota Imanaga, Edward Cabrera, Jameson Taillon, Javier Assad, and Matthew Boyd.
Rea has given up just four runs across his last 12 ⅔ innings pitched (2.84 ERA). Imanaga has allowed only two runs in his last 13 innings pitched (1.38 ERA). Cabrera threw another quality start his last time out. Taillon and Assad pitched well in their recent starts, and Boyd allowed two runs across 4 ⅔ innings in his return from the injured list on Wednesday.
Despite the season-ending injury to Cade Horton, the Cubs rotation continues to thrive. This group deserves more recognition and is a major reason the team has a 15-9 record at this point in the year.
Chicago’s rotation ranks sixth in ERA (3.41), 10th in FIP (3.78), and 10th in expected FIP (3.85). This group also ranks ninth in quality starts (nine), third in batting average against (.206), and has allowed the fourth-fewest hits (93) and walks (39).
The Cubs needed other pitchers to step up in the rotation when Horton went down. Pitchers like Imanaga have done exactly that.
The southpaw has been brilliant over the past two weeks and is showing that rookie form once again. He threw six shutout innings with nine strikeouts against the Pirates on April 10, threw six innings of one-run ball with 11 strikeouts against the Phillies last Wednesday, and recently threw seven innings of one-run ball against the Phillies again on Tuesday.
If Imanaga continues to throw the ball like this, this rotation projects well for the rest of the season. This group has the potential to be a top-10 unit in 2026, even without Horton.