Cubs Sweep! Cubs Sweep! Cubs Sweep! Padres Collapse Out of Playoffs

The Cubs blew out the Padres twice to improve to 16-14 in the Statis-Pro season, about the same as their 15-13 start this year to the real MLB season. The bad news is the Cubs have come back to earth since then to fall to 19-22. The top four teams in our Statis-Pro season are the same as in MLB, just shuffled behind the 1st place Dodgers. The Cubs are one of two surprises, in 6th place in Statis-Pro but now 10th place in actual MLB play. The second surprise in the Marlins, one of five teams relegated and not playing in our Statis-Pro season - while they have shocked all to be 6th overall in actual MLB play. Here are the standings with a note on where they rank overall in NL rankings. 

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Rnk	Statis-Pro Teams	Wins	Losses	Real MLB Rank
1	Los Angeles Dodgers	19	11	1st
2	Milwaukee Brewers	18	12	4th
3	Arizona Diamondbacks	17	13	3rd
4	Atlanta Braves	16	14	2nd
5	Philadelphia Phillies	16	14	7th
6	Chicago Cubs	16	14	10th
7	New York Mets	15	15	9th
8	Pittsburgh Pirates	12	18	5th
9	San Diego Padres	12	18	8th
10	Cincinnati Reds	7	23	11th

Dansby Swanson hit a 3-run homer to give the Cubs a 5-0 lead, and it held up as a 5-run sweep since that was the score at the end of the 8th.

The Padres finally scored one in the 9th for a 5-1 final.

Nico Hoerner (AA speed) stole two more bases, but the big news was the Cubs No. 4 starter Jameson Taillon throwing 6.1 scoreless innings.

Cubs Suzuki's 3 HRs, 8 RBIs Key 9-2 Win to Chase Padres Out of Playoffs 

Could play this game another 1000 times and Suzuki wouldn't have a three homer game but ...

 Selya Suzuki had three homers and eight RBIs to key a 9-2 sweep if the Padres who now in Statis-Pro like in real MLB action would not make the playoffs if the season ended today.

The Cubs credit for a 3-game sweep makes them 13-14 with a chance to reach or exceed .500. Mark Leiter continued to be untouchable with six innings of hitless ball. We left him on the mound as pb4-7 to go for the no hitter, but Xander Bogerts singled with one out in the 7th for the Padres first hit.

Suzuki had not made the huge jump from 14 homers his first season last year projected in the card, and Leiter's card is good but not the lights out he has been in the first three starts. But the Cubs have been a surprise.