there is Bruce Levine on the hotline. Bruce, how are you this afternoon, my man?

Good, Rami. Another exciting day here at Wrigley Field, and another exciting series.

I can't remember two sweeps of seven-game series in a row, but nonetheless, that's what's

happened at Riggly nine in a row. It's just, you know, it's an amazing streak that

they're on, and it's all predicated, as you pointed out, by pitching. The hitting has come along.

There's been games where they had to catch up, but it's all predicated on really good starting

pitching all the way through. The Cubs deserve an awful lot of credit for that.

So with that said, where would you like to go?

Is what Shoda is doing?

Is that surpassing any expectation that you had for him after the way that his season

ended last year?

Well, I don't know about that.

I mean, you know, if you think back to 2024, he was 15 and 4.

He finished fifth in the Cy Young Award voting. He was an all-star that year. This is pretty much the same picture that we saw then.

I don't think it's a it's a revelation of who he is rather than getting back to what he was before he injured his

hamstring last year. And that version of Shoda certainly was not helpful for him to be able

to go out there and compete and for the Cubs to be able to win. You remember the very last game of

the season for the Cubs in 2025. to win. You remember the very last game of the season for the Cubs in 2025.

He was rested.

They were going to an elimination game, and they had a pass because they had lost

the confidence in his ability to get out.

So he has come a long way back to being the pitcher he was in 2024,

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