This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/maryland as Former Maryland shortstop Matt Shaw helps Chicago Cubs keep pace in pennant race. The Chicago Cubs are in a tie for first place in the National League Central, and that is in no small part thanks to former Maryland third baseman Matt Shaw.

After a slow start to his big-league career, Chicago Cubs third baseman Matt Shaw is gradually getting into the swing of things. Shaw is in the midst of a four-game hitting streak, during which he is a combined 6-11 at the plate with two home runs and four RBIs,

Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell went into Sunday’s series finale at Rate Field hoping to get four innings from Ben Brown. The right-hander, looking to move past a bad outing Monday, produced one of his best starts of the year in the Cubs’ 5-4 win over the White Sox.

White Sox pitcher Sean Burke could match up against Cubs third baseman Matt Shaw, his teammate at the University of Maryland, in Sunday's series finale at Rate Field.

A recent string of good starts has shown how important Chicago Cubs rookie Cade Horton could and will need to be for Chicago to make a deep postseason run.

I missed basically a week of mostly bad Cubs baseball, other than one game started by Matthew Boyd. I suspect I’m going to have some words about Matthew Boyd, Cy Young dark horse before the end of the season.

Matt Shaw hits a two-run home run to left field, extending the Cubs' lead to 3-0 in the top of the 7th inning