In my last post I showed how the Mets did in their 34-10 stretch. Their hitters were no better or worse than they had been previously. But the pitching (and maybe defense) were much better.
But the Cubs did much worse in both hitting and pitching in their 16-24 stretch. Here is how the Cubs did in their first 118 games and then the next 40.
Stat
|
First 118
|
16-24
|
Runs
|
556
|
164
|
OPS
|
0.733
|
0.636
|
AVG
|
0.264
|
0.225
|
OBP
|
0.336
|
0.290
|
SLG
|
0.398
|
0.346
|
GDP
|
80
|
33
|
Runs per game fell from 4.71 to 4.1. Even though their OBP fell 46 points, their GDPs per game rose from .678 per game to .825 per game.
Now for the pitching. The picture is pretty ugly.
Stat
|
First 118
|
16-24
|
% Change
|
ERA
|
3.10
|
4.19
|
35.16%
|
Hits
|
8.110
|
9.275
|
14.36%
|
HRs
|
0.686
|
0.900
|
31.11%
|
BBs
|
2.763
|
3.475
|
25.78%
|
Non-HRs
|
7.424
|
8.375
|
12.81%
|
GDP
|
0.712
|
0.775
|
8.87%
|
HBP
|
0.144
|
0.300
|
108.24%
|
ROE
|
0.508
|
0.625
|
22.92%
|
SO
|
6.483
|
5.575
|
-14.01%
|
They gave up, including ROEs, about 1.8 more base runners per game, exclusive of HRs, which went up .214 per game. Strikeouts were down about .9 per game. Their ERA went up a little more than a run while it went down 1.32 for the Mets.
Up through Aug. 13, the Cubs were 74-43. They had outscored their opponents 556-407. In the 40 game stretch, they were outscored 188-164.
