8-24 NL Central Weekend Review
We are coming off of another weekend full of action and it is time to rank the division’s teams on how they did last weekend. With that in mind, here is the 8-25 NL Central Weekend Review.
1 – Pittsburgh Pirates
The last few weekends, the Pirates have gone up against other teams contending for post-season spots and every weekend, they have been stepping in and winning games. Last weekend was no exception as they took three out of four from the Giants.
Player Spotlight:
Charlie Morton, SP, Pittsburgh Pirates
One player who helped contribute to the Pirates strong performance against the Giants was Morton. On Thursday, he pitched 6.2 shutout innings against the Giants while striking out eight batters. While Morton’s 2015 numbers do not look that great overall (4.06 ERA/4.09 FIP), he appears to be set up to make a major impact down the stretch.
As the calendar has turned to August and the games have gotten more important, Morton has stepped up as he has a 2.52 ERA during the month of August. One other thing to keep in mind is that his ERA is inflated due to one very bad start on June 21 against the Nationals (where he gave up nine ER in 0.2 innings). If you factor this start out of his numbers, his ERA would be 3.23.
2 – Chicago Cubs
The Cubs took care of business last weekend, sweeping the Braves in a four game series. While they did have a better record than the Pirates last weekend, the Pirates get extra credit for playing well against the one NL team with a faint hope of preventing an all NL Central Wild Card game while the Cubs played a Braves team that is well below .500
3-St. Louis Cardinals
The Cardinals get some credit for finishing off last weekend’s series strong with a 10-3 win over the Padres. However, they still ending up losing two out of three to a Padres team that is well out of contention and saw their NL Central lead get reduced to 3 ½ games.
4- Milwaukee Brewers
The Brewers weekend starting off strong with a 10-3 win over the Nationals. That victory saw Domingo Santana get his first Home Run as a Brewer (even though it happened on the same night where Mike Fiers threw as many No-Hitters as the Brewers have in their entire history). However, they failed to capitalize on the early momentum as the Nationals took the last two games of the series.
5- Cincinnati Reds
The Reds season continues to spiral out of control. They were swept by the Diamondbacks and have now lost nine in a row. Even worse, they have fallen all the way to last place in the NL Central.
Player Spotlight:
Raisel Iglesias, SP, Cincinnati Reds
The Reds season may be spiraling out of control. However, Iglesias would be the last player to be blamed for this turn of events.
On Sunday, he had a very strong start against the Diamondbacks giving up one earned run and striking out 13 batters. Even though Iglesias did not have a strong start to this season (5.90 ERA pre-All Star break), he has turned things around in August as he has a 1.93 ERA this month.
In what has turned out to be a lost season for the Reds, Iglesias has been one of the few bright spots over the last few weeks and gives them at least some optimism for their starting rotation heading into 2016.
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