Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Examining the turning point that led to the Cubs’ hot streak

Episode Date: May 6, 2026

Laila Rahimi, Marshall Harris, Mark Grody, Rahimi, Harris, and Grody on 1043, the score. One-0 pitch from Mal to Bush. Bush, he would have chopper up the middle. It goes through to center field. Danzby's going to score. The Cubs are going to walk off the red two nights in a row. Delaf Cruz plays this ball off to the side that got by him. That was amazing.

I thought he would try to block the ball. He did not. It gets by them and Danby scores easily and the Cubs walk them off two days in a row and the Cubs dug out empties at first base. Michael Bush ties the game and then wins the game here in the 10th inning. Wow.

You know what? Dare I say Ron Coomer, thanks to our Northwestern Medicine Cubs Radio Network that Michael Bush, after getting four RBIs the other day and getting the game important too here in this scenario and going three for four with a run scored and a walk

that he was knuck in and bucking and ready to fight I think this is impossible. I think I asked for an impossible favor of fans and I'm sorry that I said no fights for crosstown. I don't think it's happening. Based on a very small sample size in our text chat and our text line, I regret that. So in the meantime,

I feel like the Cubs are doing us a solid with the energy and the socks are doing us a solid with the energy. And we're getting suggestions on our text line. And here's what happened is somebody has mentioned walk around the club, 847, and now I'm really worried. I've already worried about the energy

for next weekend in the best way possible. So you're either a believer of one of these two theories, right? When it comes to cross town and the idea of fighting, right? Yes. You're a believer that one fan base would want to fight because your team is terrible. They need something to do in the game. The game's

to blowout, whatever, right? And the other theory is, if both teams are good, that raises the chances of a fight because there's more talking of feces and whatnot. You know what I'm saying? Like that's... You're synonyms for... How are they worse than the actual swear word? I can't say what type of talking you would normally say because...

Talking bleep. Bleep? But you don't have to bleep feces. That's the thing. It's a natural thing. This and the other thing, he says, sounds so much... worse. What, defecation?

Is that the thing you're talking about? I didn't think on the Wednesday, 10 days before the first cross-town game that I would be here mentally. But then, Nuck, if you buck plays, then we got texters, bringing up songs. So which way are you, are you on the belief that if both teams are good, that elevates the chances of a fight? Or are you the belief that if one team is bad, that elevates the chances of a fight? I don't know, but you know what? I'm going to go and find out. We need to examine this.

312, 644, 64, 67, a topic we will examine for 10 days. And I'm not even kidding. And that is the beauty of it is that both teams have a lot of, they have a lot to play for. Yes. And that's where we're at in this. Before we get to the sock side of it, where they also were ready to fight and tried to come back against the Angels yet again. And they have a chance to win yet another series yet again. He knows on the mound, right?

Noah Schultz. There it is. and we've seen him put together some real progress already in a very short amount of time. Let's go back to just some of the fun with the numbers of the Cubs and the 13 straight at Wrigley. You brought it up earlier. We have to go back to April 12th. That is when this began. And that is the Sunday that we were in Vegas, by the way.

So after yelling at the TV for two games on a lovely weekend at Circa, watching the Cubs lose at home to the Pirates, then we see the turns start to begin. That was the comeback where James and Tyone, as you mentioned, gave up three home runs, including a grand slam. Layla, they were down six to one showing no signs of life on offense. I was like, oh, this is going to be a fun Monday show we do, where we talk about the Cubs getting swept in their first division series.

Right. 773 wants a knuck if you buck an explanation. It's fight music. Like, you play and you're hyped up, and then you've got to like, it's just you play it and people are inspired to fight. And the lyrics also will indicate that. There are some songs that when it plays, people just get amped up in their energy levels. And if there are other people around, they literally start bouncing.

It's like the hip-hop version of a... I want to say a Mosh Pit because Mosh Pit is more like a friendly, like... No, but same idea. But same kind of vibes. And then next thing you know, somebody you don't know comes into you a little bit too hard and knock if you buck. All right. Well, apparently the entire text line agrees that there will be fights. Okay, so I'm sorry.

I'm sorry for asking that. That was really silly of me. But getting back to the game at home at Wrigley, that was the turning point. That was the beginning of this 13-game win streak. Now, additionally, when you look back at the schedule for the Cubs, it wasn't just the brief win, or at least what it seemed like at the time,

during that stretch. It was what happened next, where I remember talking to you, Marshall, about this. That Monday, we're wondering, how the series is going to go against the Phillies and then the Mets, who at the time were not playing in the same tail spins, Philly a little bit.

But we didn't know what was ahead of us when it came to two teams with very established rosters, spent a lot of money in the off-season as we have talked about, and then we see another loss that happened that next day. That was the one where Philly scored 13 runs. Here's the issue with the Philly game, right? in that game in which obviously Javier's side was not good, right? And I was thinking, okay, this is really bad.

Kyle Schwerver is doing whatever he wants. It's just bad. It's a bad baseball game. Kyle Schwerber was rubbing it in. At that point, you're extra lamenting that he wasn't a part of this team. That was the 13th of April where we saw them lose 13 to 7 to begin that road trip against the Phillies. But here's the thing. They were up 13 to 2 in that game.

And then towards the end, in the eighth inning, they score five runs. And in my head, I'm thinking, okay, even though they lost this game 13 to 7, I can just put that on a very bad start by a pitcher. Like the fact that they lost the game. A clunker. Yeah, it was a clunker. And you're going to have clunkers from guys who operate out of the four and five hole in your starting rotation from time to time, especially if the guy is a guy who got called up who wasn't even on the big league club when the season started. But I was like, but this offense, this offense is showing me some. fight. They showed the fight on Sunday. They showed more fight on Monday. And at that point,

that's the Nuck a few buck element, guys. That's it when you're showing the fight. At that point, when they scored the seven runs, I was like, okay, they've got better pitching going tomorrow. They'll be fine in this series. And they were. They used an opener the next day, and they won the game. They've won 17 of 20 cents. But I go back to the Sunday game, and here's why I think that was the turning point of what we've seen. because that was their first walk-off win of the year. In this stretch of 20 games, they've added now four more walk-off wins. And the energy that that brings, when you have more walk-off wins over a 20-game stretch

than you even have losses, that tells you what type of team this is and what type of belief they have that even though James and Tilele leaves the game and is down 2 to 1, he said it to people when he came off the mound last night, oh, we're going to win this game. That's it. And you know what? We have him talking after the game. about that level of confidence.

You heard what Craig Counsel had to say. Well, here's what Jameson said. I'm falling behind way too much. I hate it. It's not me. I need to get better at that. But that being said, you can't change anything

when you're out there. You just have to make the next pitch. And tonight it was like finding ways to be creative. And the backdoor cutter to lefties is pretty good. Righties, for whatever reason, I feel like I'm not having as hard of a time. Lefties, there's some big misses early

with like the fastball and curball. So just I'll work at that. But yeah, I think it's, you know, kudos to like Tommy, Casey, and then Miggie catching me just to find a way to get me back and counts and, you know, just to kind of fight those command things that are going on.

And then he had another comment after the game where he talked about the confidence of being able to win. And he can say all of that. He can tell you why he's lost a game. But he echoed the same kind of confidence in his team about knowing how they were going to win

a ball game. When you can talk like that, I think Marshall, and you can be that down. It's good to be able to come back and be able to say, we know that we know that we've got this enough to make sure it's going to happen. Again, one of the best offenses in baseball, and they've played like it through this stretch, understanding that, hey, our pitching may be great one day, it may be average. And certainly, when you talk about a pitcher who's had the seven starts that Tyone has and has a

point one war, that means he's been just a tick above average, wins above replacement. His presence in the rotation has been just a tick above average. But that's okay when your offense is doing what it's doing, and you're not a tick below replacement or a negative war. You've done well enough. You've given your team chances. He's had outings where he's given up three or four runs. But guess what?

If a starting pitcher in 2026 gives up three or four runs, that means your offense is right there in the game. They're within striking distance. I did not have that same feeling after watching the Cubs blue. have to come back and just overcome 7 to 6 against Pittsburgh and then they lose 13 to 7. The 10 to 4 win on Tuesday that next day was a surprise. The 11 to 2 was even more of a surprise to take the series. Then I'm reading reports about how the Phillies have had their worst homestand in 17 years.

Then we see them go 12 and 4 against the Mets for the first one, 4 to 2 in the second game, two to one and the other one. And again, there are different ways of winning ball games. And it's just like you said, walk-offs, five different people involved in the walk-off. There's a confidence in understanding that even when you make a mistake, even when the game isn't as ideal as you want, when you want to perform, this starts to add up. And you know what, Marshall, I'm going to go even further. You remember what happened in that seven to six win over the pirates. The discussion that day started with Michael Bush being in an 0 for 30 stretch and then he gets called upon to pinch hit in that game.

I remember and it's not like he hit this bomb to end the game either, right? So he did well enough and you go back to what happened last night and understand Bush's role in that going three for four, homering. It feels like everyone in this lineup is doing, if not showing out every night, they're doing enough over the course of, let's say, a series, right? Everyone's contributing every series to making sure that they win series outside of what happened in LA. It's so true.

Keep listening for your chance to win and qualify first for the score's sweet stakes when you hear this cue to call. I love Riggily. I loved it as a kid. I loved it as a player. I love it as a broadcaster. So when you hear that cue to call later in the show, be caller number six to the score contest line. at 312-540-0-670, and you can qualify to win the score sweet stakes, where you can win a sweep for you and nine friends, 10 people total,

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