Patrick Wisdom is really loving his time on this road trip in California. The Chicago Cubs slugger has been one of the hottest hitters in baseball and thanks to two more long balls against the Oakland A’s on Monday night Wisdom is now atop MLB’s leaderboard for home runs.
The Cubs did exactly what you’re supposed to do against a bad team in their series opener against the A’s, putting up 20 hits against the league’s worst pitching staffs en route to a 10-1 win. Wisdom had three of those hits, including his seventh and eighth home runs of the season. The first came with no one on base in the second inning against Oakland starting pitcher Kyle Muller.
Wisdom singled in the fifth inning and then in the eighth inning, he put the Cubs ahead 10-1 with a three-run blast.
Pete Alonso of the New York Mets also has eight home runs so far this season.
Wisdom is now slugging nearly .800, with a wRC+ approaching 200 following his three-hit, two-homer game against the A’s.
Wisdom has now hit a home run in four consecutive games. Here are some other fun Wisdom stats from this red-hot stretch that began Friday night against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
- Patrick Wisdom has 5 HR in a 4-game span for the 2nd time in his career. Also: Aug. 25-28 in ’21. Since 2000, Sosa (7x), Soriano (3x), A. Ramírez (3x), D. Lee (1x), Contreras (1x) and Rizzo (1x) have matched that feat. Sosa has most: 6 from Aug. 8-11, 2002. -via Jordan Bastian
- Patrick Wisdom is the first Cub with 8 home runs in the team’s first 15 games of a season since Lee Walls had 9 in 1958. -via Christopher Kamka
- This is the 2nd time in the last two seasons Patrick Wisdom has homered in four straight games. Before Wisdom did so last year, the last Cub to accomplish the feat had been Anthony Rizzo from July 29-Aug. 1, 2015. -via Meghan Montemurro
Yes, this blowout win was against what many consider the worst team in baseball, but that’s what good teams do, win and win big against terrible opponents.
Wisdom wasn’t the only hitter to feast off Oakland pitching, as Nico Hoerner, Dansby Swanson, Ian Happ, Seiya Suzuki and Yan Gomes all had at least two hits Monday night. However, it was Cody Bellinger who had the best game of his career since 2019.
The Cubs center fielder went 5-for-5 and is now slashing .310/.369/.517 in 15 games after beginning the season 0-for-11, with a walk in three games against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Obviously Bellinger is locked in at the plate, but you can also tell by the fact that he has the same amount of walks as strikeouts (5) since the Milwaukee series. You absolutely love to see it.
Last, but not least, Hayden Wesneski was awesome. Again, I don’t care that it’s against the A’s because Wesneski needed a good start and he delivered a great one Monday night following his last start against the Seattle Mariners, when he only record four outs.
Wesneski didn’t necessarily begin his start all that great, allowing a run in the first and then giving up two hits with one out in the second inning. However, from that point forward, Wesneski retired 15 hitters in a row until allowing a one-out single in the seventh inning. Wesneski struck out the final two batters he faced and earned his first win of the season.
Through three turns in the starting rotation, you can see the big difference already from last year.
Marcus Stroman starts Tuesday night against Ken Waldichuk in what should be another favorable matchup for the Cubs.
