It was a tough week for the Cubs (13-9), who went 2-4 since their last off-day, including a 4-game sweep in Washington at the hands of the defending champion Nationals.

Things got off to a good start, with a quick 2-game sweep in Baltimore before staying out east in the nation’s capital. The Cubs came close in Sunday’s game, but couldn’t pull off a victory in the series finale against the Nats.

We’re following the original Cubs season schedule, which means Monday is an off-day and an opportunity to catch up on the standings and statistics from our simulated season.

Check it out:

Schedule to date

March 26 (@ Brewers) – W, 6-5
March 28 (@ Brewers) – L, 2-0
March 29 (@ Brewers) – W, 6-3
March 30 (vs. Pirates) – W, 10-2
March 31 (vs. Pirates) – L, 3-1
April 1 (vs. Pirates) – W, 7-3
April 3 (vs. Diamondbacks) – W, 4-0
April 4 (vs. Diamondbacks) – L, 5-3
April 5 (vs. Diamondbacks) – W, 4-1
April 6 (@ Pirates) – W, 19-3
April 7 (@ Pirates) – W, 4-1
April 8 (@ Pirates) – W, 4-2
April 9 (@ Pirates) – W, 6-0
April 10 (vs. Cardinals) – L, 5-1
April 11 (vs. Cardinals) – L, 6-4
April 12 (vs. Cardinals) – W, 6-1
April 14 (@ Orioles) – W, 5-0
April 15 (@ Orioles) – W, 3-0
April 16 (@ Nationals) – L, 3-2
April 17 (@ Nationals) – L, 4-0
April 18 (@ Nationals) – L, 4-3
April 19 (@ Nationals) – L, 2-1

After a week away, the Cubs return to Wrigley Field for a long homestand beginning Tuesday against the Padres. This weekend (Friday through Sunday), the Cubs host the Phillies and then welcome in the Pirates next week. The next off-day comes Thursday, May 7.

Every day the Cubs were scheduled to have a game, we’ll air the simulated contest on our Facebook page at 1 p.m. After each game ends, we will have a recap and highlights video online.

Standings

Last week’s skid means the virtual Cubs are no longer in first place, as the Cincinnati Reds have taken over the top spot in the NL Central with a 13-8 record, a half-game up on the second-place Cubs.

The Cubs still have a superior run differential (+45) over the Reds (+25), but Cincinnati is 7-3 in its last 10 games while the Cubs are 4-6.

The Brewers are still in third place with the Pirates in fourth and the Cardinals bringing up the rear in the division.

Even though they fell out of first place, the Cubs still hold a playoff spot — the second Wild Card position in the National League. The Padres are in the top Wild Card spot and the two teams meet for a three-game series this week.

A big reason for the Cubs’ success to date is the pitching staff, which leads Major League Baseball with a 2.27 ERA. The Nationals, however, are close behind at 2.36, which fits given how they stymied the Cubs’ bats over the weekend.

Despite going 2-4 on the week, the Cubs actually lowered their ERA in the last seven days (down from 2.33 a week ago).

Lineup

Our standard lineup against right-handed pitchers looks like this:

1. Kris Bryant – 3B
2. Anthony Rizzo – 1B
3. Javy Báez – SS
4. Kyle Schwarber – LF
5. Willson Contreras – C
6. Jason Heyward – RF
7. Ian Happ – CF
8. Jason Kipnis – 2B

But that has actually seen a bit of a change over the past week. Happ has been struggling and Souza was off to a red-hot start to the season, so we inserted Souza into center field a couple times.

The Cubs also played a pair of games in Baltimore, which meant they had the designated hitter. In one game, we put Schwarber in at DH and had Bote play left field one game and in another contest, Bote was simply inserted as the DH.

Triple-A Iowa is only a few games into its season and top prospect Nico Hoerner is off to a slow start (.235 average, .544 OPS, but does have 2 stolen bases). With Jason Kipnis on a hot stretch (more on that later), and Hoerner struggling in his first go-round at Triple-A, we’ll keep the young infielder down in the minors for at least a little while longer.

Season slash lines

Bryant – .235/.302/.376
Rizzo – .226/.305/.357
Báez – .272/.348/.432
Schwarber – .225/.323/.525
Contreras – .197/.237/.408
Heyward – .268/.312/.535
Happ – .197/.300/.443
Kipnis – .273/.396/.682
Bote – .214/.353/.357
Souza – .412/.500/.882
Caratini – .235/.350/.294
Almora – .125/.417/.125
Perez – .000/.000/.000

OPS leaders

Souza – 1.382
Kipnis – 1.078
Schwarber – .848
Heyward – .847
Báez – .780
Happ – .743
Bote – .710
Bryant – .679
Rizzo – .662
Contreras – .645
Caratini – .644
Almora – .542
Perez – .000

HRs

Schwarber – 6
Heyward – 5
Contreras – 4
Kipnis – 4
Bryant – 3
Báez – 3
Happ – 3
Rizzo – 2
Souza – 2
Bote – 1

RBI

Schwarber – 16
Bryant – 13
Heyward – 12
Contreras – 11
Happ – 10
Báez – 8
Rizzo – 8
Kipnis – 7
Bote – 4
Souza – 4
Caratini – 1

Rs

Heyward – 12
Schwarber – 12
Báez – 10
Bryant – 10
Contreras – 10
Rizzo – 9
Happ – 8
Bote – 8
Kipnis – 6
Souza – 4
Almora – 3
Caratini – 1

Hits

Báez – 22
Bryant – 20
Rizzo – 19
Heyward – 19
Schwarber – 18
Contreras – 15
Happ – 12
Kipnis – 12
Bote – 9
Souza – 7
Caratini – 4
Almora – 1

SBs

Báez – 4
Bryant – 1

Notes

— It was a rough week for the Cubs overall, but it was a nightmare offensively. Souza (who had a 2.011 OPS a week ago in limited action) fell back to Earth, Báez’s OPS dropped 134 points, Caratini dropped over 200 points, Schwarber dipped a bit and Heyward, Bryant and Contreras all saw their OPS’s decrease by roughly 100 points. Among the regulars, only Rizzo and Kipnis saw OPS increases and both of those bumps were modest (+33 for Rizzo, +64 for Kipnis).

— The Cubs rank 29th in MLB with a .226 team batting average, ahead of only the Giants. The Cubs are 21st in the league with a .309 OBP. They also have the second-most strikeouts in baseball (230, an average of nearly 10.5 per game).

— Schwarber leads the position-player group with a 0.8 WAR. Báez, Kipnis and Heyward are tied for second with 0.6 WAR. Bryant actually has a negative WAR (-0.1) in 22 games.

— Schwarber is on pace for 44 homers, 118 RBI and 88 runs scored over a full 162-game season.

— A week ago, Báez was hitting .317, so he lost 45 points of batting average in 6 games. Contreras and Happ continued their slides and are now both hitting under .200. Kipnis saw a nice jump (he was hitting .226 a week ago) and has been a bright spot lately after getting out to a slow start offensively. Rizzo also looks to be showing some signs of life with the bat (he was hitting .200 with only a .279 OBP last week), but the power is still not there (.357 SLG).

— Over the last week, Báez had nearly as many stolen bases (2) as hits (3).

— Almora picked up his first hit of the season and with a bit more playing time, Souza nearly doubled his season total in hits (he had 4 a week ago). Bote more than doubled his season hit total (going from 4 hits to 9).

— Rizzo had only 12 hits in the Cubs’ first 16 games of the season, but notched 7 knocks over the last week (6 games).

— Bryant, Rizzo and Báez combined for only 2 RBI and 4 runs in the 6 games.

— In another example of their recent offensive futility, the Cubs only hit 4 homers in the 6 games between the stat updates. It’s no surprise they went 2-4 in that stretch, as we illustrated the lineup’s reliance upon dingers last week.

Rotation

Kyle Hendricks — 3-0, 2.48 ERA, 1.26 WHIP
Yu Darvish — 2-1, 1.32 ERA, 0.88 WHIP
Jon Lester — 1-2, 3.09 ERA, 1.54 WHIP
José Quintana — 3-0, 1.55 ERA, 0.69 WHIP
Tyler Chatwood — 1-2, 3.63 ERA, 1.44 WHIP

Notes

— Darvish leads the Cubs staff with 1.1 WAR, followed by Quintana (0.6 WAR) and Hendricks (0.5 WAR).

Bullpen

RP stats

Craig Kimbrel — 0.00 ERA, 0.60 WHIP, 6 SVs
Rowan Wick — 0.00 ERA, 0.88 WHIP
Kyle Ryan — 3.18 ERA, 1.24 WHIP
Jeremy Jeffress — 3.68 ERA, 1.23 WHIP
Dan Winkler — 0-1, 3.00 ERA, 0.83 WHIP
Alec Mills — 3-0, 2.19 ERA, 1.14 WHIP
Brad Wieck — 0.00 ERA, 0.60 WHIP
Trevor Megill — 4.50 ERA, 1.10 WHIP, 1 SV

Holds leaders

Winkler — 6
Ryan — 3
Wick — 2
Jeffress — 1

Notes

— With the numbers we see from the pitching staff, it’s remarkable the Cubs don’t have a better record. But that blame falls on the offense. As the pitching inevitably falls back to Earth, maybe the lineup will start producing more as the virtual weather warms up?

— Kimbrel is still perfect (6-for-6) in save opportunities. Ryan and Mills are the only 2 pitchers who have blown a save this season. Megill picked up a save by pitching the final 4 innings of a game a couple weeks ago.

— It’s absolutely been a best-case scenario in the Cubs bullpen as the unit has a 2.30 ERA, 0.99 WHIP and 60 strikeouts in 58.2 innings.

Around the league

— Darvish is second in the NL in ERA and Quintana is fourth.

— Quintana (0.69) has the lowest WHIP in the league, narrowly edging out Max Scherzer (0.71). Darvish is sixth with his 0.88 WHIP.

Andy Martinez contributed to this article.