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Cubs 7, Rangers 1
AB R H BI
Conforto DH 4 1 2 0 2B
Michael Conforto, who hit .199/.305/.333 and was left off the Dodgers’ playoff roster a year ago, who hit .227/.323/.388 from 2021 to 2025, who I am certain I dunked on repeatedly from the day the Cubs invited him to camp to, well, now, has started the 2026 season .375/.480/.675 in 50 PA. We’re still very much covered by Voros’s Law -- any player can hit anything in 60 at-bats -- but Conforto has been a big part of the Cubs’ story.
The Cubs have won ten in a row, their second ten-game winning streak in a month, wrapped around a three-game losing streak. They have the best record in baseball now, and a 5 1/2-game lead over the Brewers in the Central. Despite a parade of pitching injuries that have forced them to repatriate Ben Brown to the rotation (four no-hit innings last night) and will surely send them into the trade market this summer, the Cubs have papered over everything with runs. They lead the majors with a 123 wRC+ and 215 runs scored.
Depth has been the key. A dozen Cubs have batted at least 20 times. Ten of them have at least a 104 wRC+, Dansby Swanson is at 99 and Alex Bregman pulls up the rear at 95. The Cubs simply have not had to play any bad hitters. When you have this kind of quality up and down the lineup, every inning is a potential rally, and the offense doesn’t break down going around the turn. The Cubs are second in baseball in OPS+ from their bottom three lineup spots, behind only the Dodgers.
I’m squeezing the Cubs, on a 20-3 run, in here in part because they fit a mold that sometimes slips through the cracks, the team does pretty much what I expected them to do. They won’t qualify for Teams Week because of that, and if they run away and hide in the NL Central, the focus here will shift to teams in tighter races. For today, though, let’s acknowledge this monster run, which is what a 95-win team can look like at its peak, and that a guy I wanted released in favor of Dylan Carlson has been a big part of that success.
