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Nine Innings: Three Players Limiting the Cubs, Vlad Guerrero Jr.'s Eruption and Ohtani's Filthy Splitter

By Tom Verducci

The Milwaukee Brewers are a legit postseason contender and the St. Louis Cardinals are assembling a shutdown rotation, so the Chicago Cubs don’t have the margin of error they had last year, when nobody else in the division finished more than five games over .500.

What’s wrong? The Cubs don’t win one-run games (5-9), they don’t hit with runners in scoring position (.228), they strike out with a runner on third and less than two outs more than anybody else (31) and they don’t steal many bases (18). But none of that matters significantly.