8th straight win gives Cubs buying potential

ST. LOUIS -- At the outset of the second half, Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said there were two crucial boxes to check in order to realistically table the thought of selling at the Trade Deadline.

“We need to make up ground on first place,” Hoyer said, “and we need to make up ground on .500. That’s important.”

The Cubs have answered the call, picking up their eighth win in a row with a 5-1 victory over the division-rival Cardinals on Saturday night at Busch Stadium. That marks the longest winning streak for the North Siders since rattling off an 11-game run across July and August in 2016. The Cubs hoisted the World Series trophy at the end of that campaign.

Their latest win moved the club 3 1/2 games back of first place in the National League Central and three games back in the Wild Card race. Chicago has won 11 of 15 games to start the second half, greatly increasing its postseason odds (32% now compared to a season-low 6% on July 17, per Fangraphs) and climbing beyond the break-even mark with a 53-51 record.

That has put the Cubs in a position to add to the roster before Tuesday’s Trade Deadline.

“If we continue to go out and play and do what we're doing -- play good baseball and rack up wins -- then good things are going to happen,” Cubs manager David Ross said. “I think that's all we need to know. We need to focus on the game. We need to focus on the Cardinals.”

In the latest win over their I-55 rivals, the Cubs had a variety of players come up big:

• Starter Jameson Taillon allowed hits to the first two batters he faced, then held St. Louis to an 0-for-17 showing the rest of the way. The big righty ended with a six-inning quality start.
• Ian Happ belted a go-ahead, two-run homer in the third inning off a familiar foe in Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright. Happ boasts more career homers (seven) off Wainwright than any other batter.
• In his first game off the injured list, Nick Madrigal chipped in two hits, scored from first base on a Mike Tauchman double and made a spectacular diving stop in the fourth to take a hit away from Willson Contreras.
• Veteran catcher Yan Gomes added a two-run homer in the fourth inning and Tauchman, fresh off his game-ending home run robbery on Friday, had a three-hit night.

The list could be even longer.

“It’s been fun,” said Taillon, who has a 1.78 ERA in his last four starts. “That's kind of the way we're built. It's like we're going to need everyone at some point. This isn't built around one or two superstars. This is a deep roster. And I think that's one of our strengths. Right now, it does feel like everyone's contributing.”

It has been precisely what the front office needed to see from the team between the start of the second half and the arrival of Tuesday’s 5 p.m. CT Trade Deadline. It felt that way a few games ago, and the players have continued to keep the foot on the accelerator.

Now, maybe the focus can shift toward finding areas to upgrade the roster. The back of the bullpen has shown great improvement, but another arm, especially a lefty, could help. The rotation might be an area to target. The Cubs could benefit from another right-handed bat to lengthen things out.

Ross would not tip his hand when asked if Hoyer has indicated that the front office has moved into buy mode.

“I wouldn't say that. We just talk constantly,” Ross said. “I've never sat in that seat, so it’s speculation, but it just feels like there's probably a lot of different avenues that every team works through and conversations that everybody has. That, ‘If this happens and that happens, what are the needs? What are the pieces?’ And they work through all that.”

The manager said there remains “a lot of variability” to what the Cubs’ decision-makers must weigh in the coming days. That said, everyone from the ownership to the front office to the coaches and players has one goal in mind.

“They want to win. We want to win,” Ross said. “I definitely think the group has proven the capability of playing really good baseball and making up ground. I know Jed has said [that] chasing down .500 was important. We're definitely closer to that than we were.”