Nam Y. Huh/AP Photos
The Cubs found out last year the kind of toll scraping out a midseason comeback and trying to maintain momentum though the stretch run can take on a team.
They found out that they could pull off an improbable climb as the trade deadline approached. But they ran out of steam as the year closed, falling short of a playoff berth.
They aren’t in imminent danger of repeating the past. Entering the first series of the Crosstown Classic this week, two games against the cellar-dwelling White Sox at Wrigley Field this week, the Cubs sit in third place in the National League Central, with a 29-31 record.