TORONTO – Cubs right-hander Kyle Hendricks is one of the few remaining players on the roster who can speak to what it’s like to build toward a playoff run at Wrigley Field, the fans showing up in droves, on the edges of their seats when they aren’t on their feet.
The extra meaningful games the team played leading up to the trade deadline, however, gave even the young players on this team an applicable frame of reference.
“Every game is a lesson in that way,” Hendricks said in St. Louis before the deadline. “We’re taking that sense of urgency every game. … These young guys, they’re going to pick up on that, they thrive on the energy.”
It would have been understandable if the Cubs’ furious pre-trade deadline push had been followed by a lull after they convinced the front office to add. But, regardless of an ugly 11-4 loss to the Blue Jays on Sunday, they haven’t let up.
Dating back to mid-July, the Cubs have won seven of their past eight series, including a three-game set in Toronto this weekend. They went 18-8 in that stretch, going on an eight-game winning streak leading up to the deadline.
“I feel like we’re pretty well equipped for whatever the next month and a half, two months of the regular season has in [store for] us,” Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner said this weekend. “Just in what we experienced with the deadline, having some games that felt like they were a little turned up as far as urgency and intensity. So, I think that’ll be a really good experience in the long run for our group too.”
The series in New York could have ushered in a downturn. It came at the end of a stretch of 16 straight games without an off-day. And the beleaguered Mets blew out the Cubs in the first of three games, which included mid-game rain delay that forced manager David Ross to use more of his already taxed bullpen than he’d planned. They then split two one-run games.
The Cubs bounced back to win the next two games to claim the series win against the Blue Jays, who are trying to hold onto at least an AL Wild Card spot.
“Win or lose, you have to continue to show up and prepare to win each and every day,” shortstop Dansby Swanson said. “That’s something that we’ve done really well over the past probably two months, and we’re just going to continue that moving forward.”
The Cubs can’t afford to go on another skid like they did in a 10-18 May. So that ability to move past losses like Sunday’s blowout, along with a knack for channeling urgency, will come in handy down the stretch.
“The stuff that you’ll see about good teams that make the postseason or are in the postseason conversation,” manager David Ross said, “those things happen throughout the year that create a confidence within the group of, it doesn’t matter what the game is going to throw at us. We’re still in the game, we have a chance to come back and win the game, or we were able to put up enough runs where it doesn’t matter, or you lose a game and you know you’ll be right back in it the next day.”
Next, the Cubs return to Chicago for the second installment of the 2023 Crosstown Classic, this time at Wrigley Field.
“I bet the energy will start picking up the better we play, the more we’re in position to take this division,” Hendricks said late last month. That’s right where you want to be, man, playing good baseball and being in the thick of it. It’s such a good atmosphere at Wrigley when you’re right in that.”
The intensity was already noticeable last home stand. Now, the Cubs have a chance to close in on the division-leading Brewers, who they trail by 3 ½ games. The Cubs have a set of five games at Wrigley Field this week against the White Sox and Royals, the bottom two teams in the AL Central.
