Cubs kick off crucial stretch leading up to Trade Deadline

CHICAGO -- Cubs manager Craig Counsell is not looking at the Trade Deadline as some make-or-break moment for his ballclub. The way Counsell views his team’s situation, the urgency extends beyond that date and into the period when teams begin reserving spots on the October stage.

“I look at the whole total number of games left,” Counsell said prior to Friday’s 5-2 loss to the D-backs at Wrigley Field. “That's what we have left to prove ourselves. And that's our job. I've said this before, the way we played the first 100-ish games of the season has left us not very much room for error.

“We've got to play really well to to get back in this and to put ourselves in position, but I don't think that it's determined by the next 10 days.”

Counsell is correct in that that is his job, along with the task for the players in his fold and the coaches on his staff. The job of the Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer and his team in the front office is to use the days leading up to the July 30 Trade Deadline to determine the path for the final two months.

Mounting losses may not lead to an all-out sell-off -- there are contractual complications throughout the Cubs’ rigid roster -- but Hoyer could decide not to make any major additions, while flipping a few pieces in the process. The clock is ticking on that front and opening the season’s second half with a loss did not help the players’ cause.

“We're in a very similar situation as we were last year,” Cubs lefty Justin Steele said. “We were one game away [from the playoffs] last year, and there's a bunch of different things that can happen over the course of the season, where one win turns into a loss or one loss turns into a win.”

To Steele’s point, the current Cubs team has a 47-52 record through 99 games and sits four games back of the National League Wild Card picture and nine games back of the Central-leading Brewers. A year ago through 99 games, Chicago had a 48-51 ledger and was 5 1/2 games back in the Wild Card race and 6 1/2 games back of the division lead.

Hoyer opted to add at the Deadline -- acquiring a hitter (Jeimer Candelario) and a reliever (Jose Cuas) -- to help for the stretch run. The North Siders got on a hot streak and pushed their playoff odds over 90% in early September before a late fade from contention. And within the 7-15 finish, the Cubs lost six games to the D-backs, who snuck into the playoffs and ran to the league’s pennant.

Arizona was an annoyance for Steele again on Friday.

“It's a good lineup over there,” Steele said. “Obviously they were in the World Series last year.”

Steele headed into the afternoon riding a streak of seven consecutive quality starts and had spun a 1.48 ERA across his past nine outings. The D-backs worked Steele for five runs on nine hits (eight singles) and chased him out of the contest in 4 2/3 innings.

“Justin just struggled,” Counsell said. “They had a good approach and they were clearly trying to stay inside and take him the other way. He just had trouble kind of getting the ball all the way in. He just didn't get a bunch of pitches far enough in and they did a nice job with that.”

For Arizona, righty Ryne Nelson racked up nine strikeouts and exited with a 5-0 advantage with two outs in the sixth inning. The Cubs’ offense -- one that averaged 5.5 runs in the 11 games leading up to the All-Star break -- mounted a late rally, but only managed to eke two runs across against the D-backs' bullpen.

Before the game, Counsell said the All-Star break is as important for a mental reset for players as it is for the physical rest. The manager added that a team can feel “energized” when it arrives for the start of the second half.

“Then, we're back in the schedule and we're back in it,” Counsell said.

And the schedule leading up to the Trade Deadline remains crucial.

“We really believe in the group we've got in there,” Steele said. “It's a lot of the same guys from last year and we made some additions, so I'd say that we're better on paper. We've just got to put wins in the column.”