Cubs head home after 5-4 trip ready for September baseball

DENVER -- The final snapshot of the Cubs’ current road trip -- Rockies players pouring out of their dugout and onto the field to swarm Mickey Moniak after his walk-off triple at Coors Field -- masked what had been a decent three-city trip for the North Siders.

Even with the 6-5 defeat in hand, the Cubs headed home with two series wins and a winning record (5-4) on the trek through Anaheim, San Francisco and Denver. And as tough as August felt at times for the ballclub, especially given the historic manner in which the rival Brewers stacked up victories, Chicago heads into September in a solid position.

The true push for the postseason has arrived.

“It’s tough to talk about after a loss,” Cubs lefty starter Matthew Boyd said. “But you think about that. Sept. 1, striking distance of the division: It’s where you want to be. And [with] all the hard work in terms of [having] one of the best records in the National League, it’s pretty exciting.

“You think about where we were in Spring Training and the aspirations of this ballclub and how we want to play, we’re doing what we want to do, and I still think we can play better. I think everyone believes that. That’s the best part about it.”

With a 78-59 record, the Cubs have their most wins heading into September since 2018, when Chicago carried a 79-55 showing into the final month. The North Siders currently sit 6 1/2 games behind the National League-leading Brewers, but hold a two-game edge over the Padres for the NL’s top Wild Card spot.

According to FanGraphs, the Cubs’ odds of winning the division have dwindled to 4.7%, but the team has 99.7% odds of making the playoffs. The next four weeks will likely be about jockeying for position among the NL field and making sure the “innings puzzle,” as manager Craig Counsell so often says, is pieced together with October increasingly in mind.

Counsell is not quite at that point yet.

“I’ve found that whenever you make pitching plans a month in advance,” Counsell said, “you have no chance for them to be successful. 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.’”

The Cubs have already started to take steps to build up some roster insurance via the additions of righty Aaron Civale and veteran switch-hitter Carlos Santana (not yet official). The month of August included some injury setbacks to the pitching staff and a handful of hitters went into prolonged slumps, so bolstering the roster’s safety net is important.

In Sunday’s loss, Boyd endured a few fluky hits, but the four runs he surrendered in his six frames gave him a 5.09 ERA in his last seven outings. In contrast, the lefty spun a tidy 2.20 ERA in his first 20 outings, making the National League All-Star team along the way.

Boyd already knew where he erred against Colorado.

“I could’ve been more aggressive on the plate,” Boyd said. “We kind of made that adjustment as the game went on, but it’s one of those things where I didn’t need to be as fine, right? There’s no excuse. I just didn’t need to do it, and I did. I made the adjustment, but unfortunately, those two [extra] runs cost [us].”

The walk-off triple by Moniak came against hard-throwing righty Daniel Palencia, who is in his first season as closer for the Cubs. Palencia had a strong performance on Saturday night, but has now allowed a run in six of his last 11 games. He allowed just six earned runs total in his first 38 outings this season.

This recent rough patch will be important as Palencia prepares for an October setting.

“It’s not a matter of if you’re going to get punched in the face. It’s a matter of when,” Boyd said. “Danny has all the right makeup. We’ve got all the belief in him. And he’s done a great job for us all year. We know he’s going to punch back. He always does.”

Since the All-Star break, the Cubs’ offense has seen a drop in slugging percentage (.387, compared to .446 in the first half) and diminished production with runners in scoring position. Despite the loss, Seiya Suzuki delivered a two-run double with two outs in the third and Ian Happ slugged a game-tying, three-run homer in the eighth.

It was not enough, but the Cubs were able to exit Coors Field knowing they had set themselves up for a memorable September.

“We’ve put ourselves in a good position here,” Happ said. “We have a lead in the Wild Card [race] and we want to go after that division. You have to take it one day at a time. As cliché as it is, we can’t think about the end of September right now. We’ve got to play this series at home and then go from there."