What could have been a very successful nine-game road trip for the Chicago Cubs ended on the sourest of notes.
After the Cubs took the first two games of their series against the lowly Colorado Rockies, the worst team in baseball had a parting gift for the Cubs — a walk-off triple from outfielder Mickey Moniak to drop Chicago to 5-4 on the trip.
The Cubs are in excellent position to make the playoffs at 78-59 entering Monday, nine games clear of the Cincinnati Reds, who are the first team on the outside looking in. But the loss to the 39-98 Rockies certainly served as an effective reminder that nothing is guaranteed.
And after the game, when asked about the September stretch run and how he would deploy his pitchers, manager Craig Counsell made it clear that the Cubs can’t get too far ahead of themselves right now.
“I’ve found that whenever you make pitching plans a month in advance, you have no chance for them to be successful,” Counsell said, per Jordan Bastian of MLB.com. “So, I think you do it, but I think how I always thought about it is, we’ve got at least a couple weeks before anything has to be like, ‘We better take an action to prepare for this.’”
Incidentally, the Cubs added one more pitcher to the mix on Sunday in right-hander Aaron Civale, who was claimed off waivers from the Chicago White Sox. They also signed first baseman Carlos Santana after he was released by the Cleveland Guardians, according to multiple reporters, including Bastian.
Now that the playoff push has arrived, Counsell is doing his best to keep the Cubs focused on one game at a time, despite their relatively secure position in the standings.
It’s unlikely they’ll catch the Milwaukee Brewers, who were 6 1/2 games clear at the start of play on Monday, but Fangraphs gives them a 99.6% chance of making it to the postseason.
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