The Chicago Cubs have placed outfielder Cody Bellinger on the injured list due to…, as Cubs complete sweep of Orioles at Camden Yards with 8-0 win: ‘It’s fun right now’
The Chicago Cubs have put outfielder Cody Bellinger on the 10-day injured list because he fractured his left middle finger.
Bellinger got hit by a pitch from Cionel Pérez during the seventh inning of Wednesday night’s 4-0 win over the Orioles. He stayed in the game initially but had to leave shortly afterward.
It’s uncertain how long Bellinger will be out of action.
“He won’t be doing much until after the All-Star break, and then we’ll start rehabbing the finger’s range of motion,” manager Craig Counsell said on Thursday. “We’ll see how that goes.”
Bellinger has a batting average of .269 with nine home runs and 37 RBIs.
Losing Bellinger is a big setback for the Cubs, who had won five of their last six games heading into Thursday’s series finale against Baltimore.
“He’s our number three hitter, so losing him is a blow,” Counsell added. “You can’t easily replace someone like that. We’ll have to rally together while he’s out and try to keep up the good offensive play we’ve shown recently.”
To fill Bellinger’s spot on the roster, Chicago has called up outfielder Alexander Canario from Triple-A Iowa. Canario has played in 13 games for the Cubs this season.
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You did not have “The Cubs are going to sweep the Orioles” on this week’s baseball bingo card.
No one did.
And yet, after a convincing 8-0 win Thursday in Baltimore, that’s exactly where we stand. This is the team I thought the Cubs had at the start of this season — solid starting pitching, timely hitting of various kinds, and enough relief work to finish things off.
It was the Cubs’ fourth win in a row and sixth of seven, and their first sweep of a three-game series since they did it to the Astros at Wrigley Field April 23-25. Further, they hadn’t swept a three-game set on the road since they did it to the Pirates in Pittsburgh more than a year ago, June 19-21, 2023.
The first two innings of this game went by scoreless, then the Cubs offense got to work in the third. With two out, Michael Busch walked.
Seiya Suzuki doubled him in [VIDEO].
Justin Steele continued his outstanding work from last week, retiring the first 11 Orioles before Ryan Mountcastle doubled with two out in the fourth.
The Cubs offense produced a crooked number in the top of the fifth. With one out, Tomas Nido singled and Nico Hoerner doubled him to third.
This time, it was Busch with the RBI double, driving in both runners [VIDEO].
Did I mention doubles? Here’s Suzuki’s second of the game, making it 4-0 Cubs [VIDEO].
The fifth Cubs run crossed the plate in the sixth, courtesy of Dansby Swanson’s eighth home run of the year [VIDEO].
Swanson has shown signs during this series of coming out of his long slump. Here’s hoping that continues.
The Cubs put the game out of reach in the top of the seventh. Hoerner led off with a single, and after a force play, Suzuki smacked his third extra-base hit of the game, an RBI triple [VIDEO].
Fun fact about all of Suzuki’s extra-base hits from BCB’s JohnW53:
The last Cub before Seiya Suzuki with two doubles and a triple was Javier Baez, on June 20, 2018, in a 4-0 win at home over the Dodgers.
Only five others had done it since 2000: Nose Nieves (2000), Corey Patterson (2003 and 2004), Jim Edmonds (2008) and Anthony Rizzo (2016). Each of those were on the road. Each had two doubles and one triple. Rizzo also had a single.
Cubs batters have done it 40 times since 1901.
I know you haven’t had enough of Cubs doubles — here’s another, by Ian Happ, that made it 7-0 [VIDEO].
One out later, Swanson’s second hit of the game made it 8-0 [VIDEO].
That was more than enough for Steele, who completed seven shutout innings, allowing three hits, striking out four with no walks. I was a bit surprised that Craig Counsell lifted Steele after seven, given that he had thrown only 70 pitches, but on a hot, sticky night it’s possible Steele told Counsell he was done. The game was finished off with scoreless innings from Drew Smyly (13 pitches) and Jorge Lopez (18 pitches), so the pen should be fresh for the four-game series coming up in St. Louis.
And so, my friends, I add with pleasure:
More facts about this impressive win, and series, from BCB’s JohnW53:
The back-to-back shutouts of the Orioles were the 105th time since 1901 that the Cubs have blanked opponents in two or more consecutive games.
The most recent before this week were June 19-20 of last year, 8-0 and 4-0 at Pittsburgh, and May 16-17 of 2022, at home vs. the Pirates, 9-0 and 7-0.
The most recent vs. anyone other than the Pirates was May 1 and 3, 2019, 11-0 at Seattle and 4-0 at home vs. the Cardinals.
The most recent in which both games were vs. anyone other than the Pirates was April 16-17, 2019, 4-0 and 6-0 at Miami.
The shutout Thursday was the Cubs’ third in five days, going back to Sunday. The shortest span since 2000 in which they have blanked opponents three times is four days, April 26-29, 2018. They had a pair of five-day spans in 2010.
Of the Cubs’ 13 hits in this game, seven went for extra bases. Suzuki’s three extra-base hits raised his SLG from .458 to .475 and his OPS from .786 to .809 — in one game!
In addition, the Orioles hadn’t been shut out in consecutive games since June 23-24, 2021 — that’s an Orioles team that lost 110 games. This Orioles team came into this series with the best record in the American League, and the Cubs outscored them 21-2 and outhit them 38-19. This sweep was an impressive smackdown of a very good team, and it showed what this Cubs team is capable of. They’re getting hot at exactly the time they need to. They seem ready for a tough divisional matchup this weekend, a four-game set against the Cardinals in St. Louis.
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