Chicago Cubs Need to Take Advantage of Soft Upcoming Schedule

Chicago Cubs Celebrate Win
Caylor Arnold, USA TODAY Sports

In a tightly contested playoff race, competitive teams will take breaks wherever they can take them. That’s especially true of the talented young Chicago Cubs team that is just learning how to win when it matters.

Chicago is two games ahead of the New York Mets and one game ahead of the San Francisco Giants for the second wild card spot in the National League. As both teams breathe down their neck, the Cubs get that break they’ve been looking for in the form of a favorable schedule.

The Cubs’ next four series are against some of the worst teams in the National League. In fact, the combined record of those four teams is 152-214. They will take on the Cincinnati Reds for four games, the Philadelphia Phillies for three games, the Colorado Rockies for three games and the Milwaukee Brewers for four games.

This stretch is obviously favorable for the Cubs, especially since all four of these teams figure to be trading away key players at the deadline.

Teams that make it to the playoffs beat teams they should. It sounds overly simplified, but it’s completely true. Winning teams take care of business when they should. Even as a young, inexperienced team, the Cubs have done that so far this season.

They can’t afford to stop doing that at such an important juncture in the season because when this upcoming 14-game stretch is over, they enter the stretch run and the nitty gritty part of their schedule. Additionally, the Mets play 10 of their next 13 games against division-leading teams while the Giants play zero winning teams in their next 12 games.

Essentially, the Cubs and Giants can put the Mets out of contention during this upcoming two-week stretch. Meanwhile, the Cubs have to keep winning in order to keep pace with San Francisco, who also has an easy upcoming schedule.

Make no mistake about it, the next two weeks will make or break the Cubs’ season. By the end of the trade deadline, the Cubs will be in the middle of their best run of the season, or they will be on the downturn, slowly falling out of the playoff race.

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