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1. The Chicago Cubs are the greatest team The San Francisco Giants lead the National League in wins. The Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies in the bottom of the ninth inning, when Conor Gillaspie doubled home Ramiro Pena -- not exactly the pair you would have envisioned winning a game back in March. Combined with the Cubs' 6-1 loss to Jose Fernandez -- 13 strikeouts in another dominating performance -- and the Miami Marlins, the Giants now lead the Cubs in victories, 49 to 48, although the Cubs still have the slight edge in winning percentage due to two fewer losses.
 The Cubs also hold a sizable margin in run differential: +155 to +66. Does that point to a huge talent edge for the Cubs? It suggests that's the case, but the standings aren't determined by run differential. The reason their records are similar despite the scoring gap is the Cubs are 9-10 in one-run games, while the Giants are now 19-9. Of course, those are runs and wins in the bank, not necessarily predictive of what will happen moving forward. Both teams are battling injuries, and while the Cubs were projected to have the superior depth, the Giants keep winning with emergency call-ups such as Gillaspie and Pena in the lineup. After a sub-.500 April, they've gone 21-8 in May and 16-7 in June.
The Giants' 1-2 punch of Madison Bumgarner and Johnny Cueto (who did have a poor outing on Sunday) have certainly matched Jake Arrieta and Jon Lester. The lineups look pretty even, especially with Brandon Belt going toe-to-toe with Anthony Rizzo in wOBA and Jason Heyward struggling at the plate. If Joe Panik and Matt Duffy (currently on the DL) start hitting, I might even take the Giants' offense after factoring in park effects. The clear advantage the Cubs have is the back of the rotation, with Jason Hammel and Kyle Hendricks versus Jake Peavy and Alberto Suarez/Matt Cain. That's a main reason FanGraphs projects the Cubs with six more wins than the Giants over the rest of the season. All I know is this: The race for best record in the NL is on. P.S.: Clayton Kershaw threw 30 pitches in the second inning, walked a batter and gave up four runs. The Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-3. 2. It's going, going, gone. The Baltimore Orioles hit three more home runs as they chase the single-month record. The St. Louis Cardinals hit six homers -- all off the Seattle Mariners' bullpen. The Cleveland Indians hit four HRs in one inning off Justin Verlander, as incredible as that seems. If it appears like there were a lot of home runs on Sunday, there were. From Elias, the most home runs on a day with no doubleheaders: 1. April 7, 2000 -- 57
2. May 21, 2000 -- 56
3. August 13, 2004 -- 53
4. May 19, 1999 -- 52
4. June 26, 2016 -- 52 3. Shoutout to Francisco Lindor. He did not get one of those four home runs off Verlander, but he did go 3-for-5, raising his season line to .311/.369/.473. Xander Bogaerts led AL shortstops in the most recent All-Star voting, as Lindor wasn't even in the top five; but here's my plea to Ned Yost: Please, do not pick Eduardo Nunez as the Minnesota Twins' representative and leave Lindor off the team. I know the Twins have to have an All-Star, and Nunez is having the best year and appears to be the most viable option. Remember, the players vote on the backup, so they might save Yost this headache. But it's possible the players vote for Carlos Correa (a fine selection) and Lindor gets squeezed off altogether. Please, Ned, do the right thing and put Lindor on the team. 4. Marcus Stroman continues to struggle. This is becoming a major issue for the Toronto Blue Jays, as Stroman allowed four runs in five innings to drop to 6-4 with a 5.33 ERA. On the other hand, our pal Mark Simon tweeted this on Saturday: Stroman's luck -- if that's the problem -- didn't turn on Sunday, mostly of his own undoing, as he walked four batters. But he has also allowed home runs in his past four starts, and that's a bad sign, as Stroman's whole game is not walking batters and getting ground balls. The Jays have received solid work from Marco Estrada, J.A. Happ and Aaron Sanchez, but they need Stroman to lift his game. 5. Jay Bruce's trade value continues to rise. This is one of the big surprises. After struggling the past two seasons, Bruce is now hitting .279/.328/.581 after tallying his 17th home run. Bruce is making $12.5 million this year, and with those batting numbers, a $13 million team option for 2017 suddenly looks pretty good again. This is exactly what the Cincinnati Reds were hoping for when they declined to trade Bruce in the offseason, coming off a season in which he was worth just 0.8 WAR. It's unlikely he's going to keep hitting at this level. He is actually hitting the ball less often to left field, so his improved numbers don't appear to be him finally adjusting to the shift. His walk rate is down, and he is swinging and missing less often, so there's some real improvement going on there. Anyway, the Reds should cash in now. Giants? Mets? Indians? Mariners? White Sox?
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