Chicago Cubs’ biggest strength has become their biggest concern

That is a serious, serious issue when heading into the postseason as a team needing to rely heavily on their bats due to a pitching staff that has been lacking and overall inconsistent.

When firing on all cylinders, Chicago’s offense is elite-tier, ranked as the top lineup among playoff teams this year in a piece for The Athletic by Stephen J. Nesbitt and Chad Jennings:

“The highest-scoring offense in the sport, the Cubs provide a blend of power, contact and speed that can confound pitching staffs. Pete Crow-Armstrong is putting the finishing touches on his MVP resume — a 40-40 season, 158 wRC+ and 10.6 fWAR. Alex Bregman was worth 5.2 fWAR and Seiya Suzuki 4.3 fWAR. Eleven of the 14 position players on the Cubs roster have a wRC+ above league average. At this rate, you can only hope to contain them.”

Another reality about the Cubs offense, though, is that it has been frustratingly streaky all season. And as things are looking right now, they’re smack dab in the middle of a cold spell.

One can toss that concern into the mix, along with the iffy pitching and the off-putting switching around of the schedule—due to inclement weather in Boston—which saw them play a doubleheader on short notice and requires them to fly out to Florida on Sunday for the final game of the season.

“We never quit,” Part 2?

“Whatever is thrown at you,” manager Craig Counsell told reporters, “it’s one of the fun things about being a resilient group and trying to build that and not getting sidetracked by a streak, injuries, weather, flight delays, whatever it is. Not getting sidetracked by those things and responding to them in real time when they do happen — that’s part of success. Every team in every sport goes on that journey every season.”

The absence of red-hot third baseman Alex Bregman, who suffered facial fractures in a freak accident involving a foul ball, very well could’ve played a role in the team’s offense suddenly growing cold. His return to the lineup in the first game of the double bill on Friday saw him go 0-for-4. He would admit that his swing mechanics were off after 5 full days of not taking any real at bats.

The two-time World Series champion, however, acknowledges that these rough patches are something that real pros have to shrug off and move past. Hot or cold, fortunate or unfortunate, the team has to focus on putting runs on the board in any way possible, especially in a playoff setting.

“This time of year, you gotta turn the page quickly,” Bregman said. “It comes down to execution. There’s gonna be games in the playoffs where we need to win games (where) we score three runs, and there’s gonna be games where we can score a lot of runs and the offense will be rolling.

“We gotta figure out a way to do a little bit better than we’ve done the last few days. It comes down to the next pitch, and that’s the mentality in there.”