Cubs climbed obstacles before disappointing end

CHICAGO -- It wasn't until the third inning of Tuesday's National League Wild Card Game when Javier Báez felt the Cubs were in sync.
"In the third inning, I said, 'Now we're here, everybody is together,'" Baez said. "If we do that during the whole year, the regular season, we get used to it."
But that apparently wasn't the case this season, which ended abruptly with a 2-1, 13-inning loss at Wrigley Field to the Rockies. Instead of preparing for the NL Division Series, Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein and manager Joe Maddon were doing exit interviews at Wrigley Field with the players.
• Epstein says Maddon will return to Cubs in '19
:: NL Wild Card Game schedule and results ::
Meeting with the media, Epstein said the players' reaction after the Wild Card Game loss varied. Some players talked about how proud they were of the season and everything that the Cubs had overcome, including injuries to players like Yu Darvish, Brandon Morrow and Kris Bryant, and a grueling schedule in which they had a stretch of 42 games in 43 days.
"On the other hand, there were players who were looking at it a little differently, like Javy for example, talking about how in some ways we struggled all year, and in some ways, something was off a little bit and never got on that roll," Epstein said. "We have to own that. I have to agree with that. Jon Lester put it in his own way -- dragging body parts through the dirt and leading to acknowledgement of where we are and where we aren't. Maybe that's a good thing in the long run. It could lead to the universal recognition that nothing will be given to us."
The offense sputtered in the second half, and Epstein said they have to find a way to correct it. But what also was missing was a sense of urgency.

"Ninety-five wins is tremendous," Epstein said. "Sometimes divisions aren't lost on the last day of the season when you only score one run, or that last week of the season and the other team went 8-0 and you go 4-3. Sometimes they're lost early in the season when you have the opportunity to push for that sweep and you already have two out of three and you're not quite there with the killer instinct as a team. You know what that makes us? Human. But that's something that in 2016, we had."
Cubs fans know what happened in 2016 -- the team won its first World Series championship since 1908.
"This year, we had chance after chance to put away the division and we didn't do it, so we have to own that," Epstein said.

The Cubs finished the 162-game regular-season schedule tied with the Brewers for first in the NL Central, then lost a tiebreaker game at Wrigley Field on Monday.
"As Jon Lester said, maybe this will be good for us," Epstein said. "If you just show up, playing it cool, knowing you're talented, knowing it's a long season and trusting that the talent will manifest over the course of 162, sometimes you end up one game short, and that's not who we are or who we want to be. We have to recognize that, and I think our players do in talking to them today."
One midseason addition the Cubs would like to keep is Cole Hamels. The lefty, acquired from the Rangers via trade, has a $20 million club option for 2019 ($6 million buyout).
"Hopefully I did everything I can to convince them that [exercising the option] would be something that would be valuable," Hamels said.
"He's a pro's pro," Epstein said. "He's absolutely someone we'd love to have as part of the mix going forward."
Epstein also said he shared responsibility as well for the Cubs not advancing in the postseason.
"I'll be the first to admit that the offseason moves we made last year did not lead to immediate productivity on those contracts this year, and it put us a little bit in a hole with our starting pitching that we all had to work hard to overcome," Epstein said. "We all have to own that, and I have to own that."

The Cubs had plenty to overcome. Three free-agent acquisitions -- Darvish, Tyler Chatwood and Morrow -- did not contribute as expected. Darvish and Morrow were sidelined with injuries, Chatwood finished the year as the Major League leader in walks (95). Anthony Rizzo was batting .149 at the end of April and Bryant missed August because of a sore left shoulder.
The Cubs overcame a 4 1/2-game deficit on May 30 to open a five-game lead on Sept. 2 in the NL Central. Did Baez feel the Cubs had a championship team in the clubhouse now?
"I don't know what to tell you," Baez said. "We are already champs. We won in '16. Our fans waited 108 years, and this is only the [second year] after we won. We've got a few more times to make it happen before 108 [years] again."