By the time the Cubs wrap up their midweek set with the Dodgers, they will have played 26 games, with all but six coming against NL West opponents.
That quirk of the schedule isn’t nothing. The Dodgers, Padres and Diamondbacks — the three foes accounting for 20 of those 26 games — owned three of the five best winning percentages in the NL coming into Monday, with a combined .672 winning percentage.
In other words, the early-season schedule hasn’t been an easy one for the Cubs.
“On paper, we knew this was going to be an April that presented challenges,” second baseman Nico Hoerner told the Sun-Times on Saturday. “There’s different types of challenges throughout a season, but just the quality of opponents and travel, it was a good test of the group. It’s always hard to predict baseball, good or bad, but we knew it’d be a test and I’ve been impressed with how everyone’s handled everything.”
Indeed, the North Siders have managed to pass that test with flying colors so far.
In addition to simply playing against these good teams, the Cubs have had to jet all over the country — heck, all over the world — to do so.
They started the season with those two games against the Dodgers in Japan, then returned to their spring home in Arizona before continuing their regular-season schedule with four games against the Diamondbacks. They went up to Sacramento to play the A’s, then finally made it home to Wrigley Field for their first homestand, then flew back to the West Coast for series in Los Angeles and San Diego before returning to Chicago.
And all the way, they faced these best-in-the-NL opponents.
Still, they’ve managed a 14-10 record in their first 24 games, leaving a weekend series win over the Diamondbacks with, statistically, the best offense in baseball. They entered Monday as the game’s leaders in runs scored (145), hits (218) and walks (97). They led the NL with an .809 OPS and ranked second in the NL with 34 home runs and 31 stolen bases.
Recently, against these challenging teams, they’ve not only held their own — a 5-4 record across their last three series, with the Dodgers, Padres and Diamondbacks — but impressed in sometimes eye-popping fashion, like with the 16-0 pounding they gave the Dodgers and with the 13-11 comeback against the Diamondbacks that saw them slug three eighth-inning homers after blowing a six-run lead.
It’s obviously early, and fortunes have a way of changing. Fans only need to remember the Cubs’ offensive struggles from a year ago.
But so far, these Cubs, while pleased with the big offensive numbers, feel they’re accomplishing what they set out to do in the spring. They feel they’re a well-rounded bunch that can win games in plenty of ways besides just launching homers on days when the wind is blowing out of Wrigley Field.
“I think we’ve been ourselves,” Hoerner said. “We’ve played a really high quality of baseball. We’ve had some tough losses, but it feels like every time we’ve had a tough loss, we’ve responded the next day with a really quality game, which is impressive about the mentality of the group. I’m excited for what’s to come.”
April games aren’t terribly helpful as measuring sticks in the six-month marathon of the baseball season. How the Cubs are playing now — and how their opponents are playing now — has little to do with how they’ll be playing come October.
But the Cubs’ championship-level aspirations figure to have them butting heads with the likes of the Dodgers, Padres and Diamondbacks at some point in that all-important month.
So call it what Hoerner did, a test for a team looking to stand among the NL’s big boys all summer long.
“We’re in a pretty good spot,” starting pitcher Jameson Taillon said Sunday. “We’ve faced great arms, great lineups, and I think we can play with anybody. Just a good reminder there.”
