LEADING OFF THIS ‘ W’ WORTH FLYING
Victory against Nationals more impressive than wins over rebuilding White Sox, Braves
Based on strength of schedule and number of quality wins, the Cubs are a bubble team. In positive news, I do like their chances of winning the conference tournament.
Oh, wait. You’re right. This isn’t the buildup to the NCAA tournament. The only Big Dance is whatever those zany Cubs relievers are doing in the bullpen. This is baseball, where one victory weighs as much as another.
But, come on. The Cubs and their fans have to feel a lot better about the 7- 4 victory Saturday against the No. 3- ranked Nationals than they did about any of the victories against the White Sox of the Big Sky Conference or the Braves of the Ohio Valley Conference.
I’m willing to concede that beating Nationals pitcher Edwin Jackson, a former Cubs bust, affects the luster of the victory a bit, if not the North Siders’ RPI, which I’ve heard is a second cousin metrically of BABiP.
But a quality win against a quality opponent is important, even if there’s no real way to measure its cosmic value.
‘‘ This is the big leagues, man,’’ Cubs pitcher John Lackey said. ‘‘ There’s no bad teams out there.’’
Sorry, cowboy, not buying it. If the Cubs are serious about this whole back- to- back World Series thing, they have to start beating good teams with some regularity. The victory against the Nats ended a three- game skid, and each of those losses at Wrigley Field had come against winning teams — two against the Diamondbacks and one against the Nats.
I don’t know if this was the start of something, if a line was crossed, if a mountain was scaled. I do know that many of the victories they’ve filled up on since the All- Star break don’t feel nearly as meaningful as what they did to the Nationals, who are 20 games above .500.
Last season, the Cubs beat everybody. Good, mediocre, bad — they didn’t care who it was.
At the All- Star break this season, the Cubs were 13- 21 against teams with winning records. Since then, they’re 4- 4 against winning teams. There is