Why should Cubs fans care about the rest of this season? Believe it or not, it matters

Mike Tauchman threw off his helmet as he neared second base, his Cubs teammates stampeding towards him. He spread his arms to greet the mayhem of a celebration that would bounce into left field and somehow tear off his jersey.

His double had sealed a 5-4 victory against the Cardinals in walk-off fashion Thursday night, completing a wild ninth-inning comeback.

“What this game has shown the last couple years is that teams that are playing their best baseball at the end of the year, those are the teams that are making October runs,” Tauchman said. “And until we’re mathematically out of it, this team has a lot of belief. This group has a lot of belief.

“And, why not?”

The Cubs came out of the trade deadline in an in-between state: not really in the battle for a National League wild-card spot, but close enough that a winning streak could make teams in front of them sweat. This win bumped them to six games back from the last spot. Not mathematically eliminated.

“Everyone in here is probably a little surprised, especially [with] how we started and what we were doing last year,” designated hitter Cody Bellinger said this week of the Cubs’ position in the standings. “It’s a tough game, and it’s not over.”

President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer’s trade deadline moves focused on 2025 and beyond. But the impact on this year’s squad came out close to a wash: adding All-Star third baseman Iassc Paredes and reliever Nate Pearson; subtracting third baseman Christopher Morel and high-leverage reliever Mark Leiter Jr.

“I think Jed’s, obviously, done a really good job,” shortstop Dansby Swanson said of the deadline.

Swanson cited Paredes’ track record on the field and positive reviews he’d heard on his clubhouse presence. He pointed to Pearson’s raw stuff and the impact a change of scenery can have on players.

“We'll all obviously miss Mark and Mo, but sometimes deadline stuff can be tough, trade stuff can be tough, just because you get to know people so well and build such relationships with them,” Swanson said. “It can be tough for them to go, but you’ve got to trust in the plan that [the front office is] putting forth. And it's definitely going to be good for us in the long haul.”

In the short term, the moves were enough to maintain hope among the players for a competitive last two months of the season.

This was essentially the same group that came into the season with such high expectations, after all. They fell short of them before the trade deadline, but maybe they could make a late statement before Hoyer has to make decisions for the offseason.

“We were able to keep a good, solid core here intact,” veteran right-hander Kyle Hendricks said this week. “And we know what we can go out there every day with, and it’s a winning ballclub.”

Even if it’s not enough to squeak into the playoffs, that’s what the Cubs have to prove the next two months, especially on the offensive side: that this is the core of a winning ballclub.

So, while the Cubs’ win Thursday didn’t make a big difference in the NL wild-card standings, it mattered that lefty Shota Imanaga collected another start’s worth of lessons in his rookie season. He gave up four runs and a pair of homers but managed to pitch into the seventh inning.

It mattered that Pearson made his second appearance as a Cub, this time avoiding hitting anyone in the head. He threw two shutout innings to finish the game.

It mattered that middle-of-the-order hitters Seiya Suzuki and Bellinger both homered.

It mattered that after Bellinger’s bomb off closer Ryan Helsley in the ninth inning cut the Cardinals’ lead to one, Nico Hoerner hit a two-out single and stole second to, as Swanson put it, “completely change the dynamic of the game.”

It mattered that Swanson and Tauchman battled two-strike counts to tie and then win.

“That was an awesome inning,” Tauchman said. “Probably one of our better innings of the year.”