Welcome to crunch time for the Cubs.
With only a handful of games remaining on the regular-season schedule and a tight NL wild-card race keeping their playoff fate a mystery, where does this team stand in terms of being able to achieve its long-held, championship-level goals?
It depends on who you ask.
The folks in the Wrigley Field bleachers have different thoughts than the ones in the third-base dugout.
Inconsistency has struck at, seemingly, the worst time for these Cubs, who still have baseball’s highest-scoring offense and far and away its best defense but haven’t been able to display regular dominance down the stretch.
The Brewers ran away with the NL Central, again, and series wins have been few since the middle of August.
And then there’s that bullpen.
At this exact moment, it might be hard to convince fans that this team is bound for October glory.
These Cubs, though, with their focus squarely on a deep playoff run since last year’s postseason exit, don’t need to be sold.
“I don’t think we’ve ever lost sight of what our potential is. We still feel like we can absolutely be the last team standing,” designated hitter Michael Conforto said Wednesday. “Regardless of what the standings say or what’s going on in the division, it doesn’t change the fact that we feel like we can win the rest of the series through the end of October.
“We have the experience and the mindset that that’s what it takes to be the last team standing: focus on winning the series the rest of the way. And then you get a ring at the end. I don’t think that confidence has ever been lost.”
Conforto, though he had a disappointing campaign at the plate and didn’t play in the postseason, was part of the last group to get rings at season’s end, last year’s Dodgers, who won their second straight World Series title.
He’s seen up close what it takes to win it all, and he’s said throughout the summer that he sees that special something in the Cubs.
But assembling the ingredients and baking the cake are two very different tasks.
Winning every series from here till the end of October seems a tall task for a team that came into Wednesday’s rubber game with the Braves having won only three of its previous nine series.
It takes quality in all areas to be what Conforto said, the last team standing.
Can the Cubs, tops in offense and defense but struggling on the pitching front, deliver?
“We know exactly what we have here, we just have to play the game well,” Conforto said. “There’s been games that we haven’t. We continue to learn from that.
“At the end of the day, if you want to win the World Series, you have to play really well down the stretch and through the playoffs. That’s what we’re focused on: just trying to show up every day and play the game well.”
Though the Cubs have been inconsistent on the field of late, they’ve been consistent behind the scenes all season. The most frequent compliment handed out is their focus on each new day, their ability to not get dragged down by the emotion of a loss or overly heightened by the emotion of a win.
Good thing, too, because these Cubs have had a wild roller-coaster ride of a campaign, including this latest dip.
“There’s obviously been some really high highs,” Conforto said, “and there’s been some pretty low lows, as well.”
Will the remainder of September bring highs or lows?
Time to find out.
“When the emotion gets heightened and there’s more energy surrounding every game … that energy comes when you’re in it and you have a chance to do something special,” Conforto said. “Fans get frustrated when they know how good the team is [and the team doesn’t perform like it].
“All the energy means good things. We understand that. We see it, we feel it, but we do have the ability to go out and focus on the job. That’s just kind of a unique thing for this group.”