Heading into Saturday afternoon the Cubs were on a five-game winning streak. As with much of the year to date, the relief pitching was good. The biggest improvement was the starting pitching. In the five wins, the pitching staff allowed a total of 10 runs. Spoiler alert: if your team averages allowing two runs per game, you are going to win a lot of games.
On Saturday the pitchers continued their good run. That is, they allowed two runs. The big difference was an offensive outburst. The Cubs had scored 16 runs over the five games.