The Chicago Cubs won their second straight series this week in Detroit against the Tigers. You have to give credit to the Tigers. They are 11 games under .500 but are still playing really hard every day. That probably has a lot to do with the influx of young talent they have on the team. Each game of the series came down to pretty much the final out.

Monday night was the craziest game of all. The Cubs were a little bit limited at the back end of their bullpen with Adbert Alzolay being unavailable after working back-to-back days. They have been playing a lot of close games in this recent stretch where they desperately need wins. That has forced David Ross to use his high-leverage relievers in a lot of games. The game was tied heading into the ninth inning before back-to-back doubles from Yan Gomes and Nick Madrigal gave Chicago the lead. The Cubs added an insurance run when Ian Happ grounded into a fielder’s choice scoring Madrigal. With Alzolay unavailable Ross called on Mark Leiter, Jr. for the bottom of the ninth. Leiter gave up a run but was able to secure the save and the win.

Chicago dropped game two after another disastrous start from Drew Smyly. This should be Smyly’s last start this season, but he has already been announced as one of the probable starters in the upcoming series against the Pittsburgh Pirates. To the Cubs’ credit, they did fight back in this game and take the lead at 4-3, but after Smyly gave up four more runs it was too much to overcome. Dansby Swanson had two hits and four RBIs in the game.

On Wednesday, the Cubs got out to a four-run lead behind five no-hit innings from Jameson Taillon. Unfortunately, the wheels came off for Taillon in the sixth when he gave up a grand slam to Kerry Carpenter. The game stayed tied until the eighth inning when Yan Gomes singled to left driving in Happ. The Cubs would add to the lead in the ninth when Nico Hoerner hit a sacrifice fly to right scoring Jeimer Candelario. Alzolay allowed a walk and a hit in the bottom of the ninth before striking out two batters to secure the save.