Game number 122 is usually right around where I talk about the marathon turning into a sprint. It’s not like there is a clear delineation. In fairness, it was probably coming out of the day off last week and starting that series in Toronto. With 14 games in 13 days coming out of that, that was probably the right place to recognize that we’ve left the long run for the short run. Fortunately, the Cubs came out of that long part of the season with about a five-game lead in the NL Wild Card race.

The Brewers are going to win the NL Central, barring an even more dramatic reversal of fortune. Even if the Cubs could somehow sweep five from the Brewers, they’d still have an uphill battle to win the Central. Spoiler alert, the Cubs are not going to sweep five from the Brewers. The Brewers are playing too well and with too much confidence. The Cubs are playing too poorly and with too little confidence. Can the Cubs win the series? Absolutely. Is it likely? No. Sadly, it’s reached the point where I’m probably happy with two wins in that series. Should the team be happy with that? No way. They have to believe they can get three or four wins.

The Cubs will open Sunday as the NL’s top Wild Card team. The Padres are coming off of a second straight loss to the Dodgers. Maybe, just maybe, their fanbase shouldn’t have spiked the football before they reached the end zone. The Mets have now won two of three and they are 4.5 behind the Cubs. The Reds dropped their second straight and are six back of the Cubs. The Cardinals have lost three straight and they are 8.5 behind the Cubs. Take a deep breath. This season is going to reach October and a Cubs playoff series.

After the offense being the dominant force of the first four months of the season, it is the pitching staff keeping the team in playoff position. With all of the frustration regarding the trade deadline and the failure to add pitching, the pitching staff looks good. Ascending Cade Horton along with Shōta Imanaga getting locked in and Matthew Boyd who has been dominant all year give the Cubs the three quality starters that you want as a playoff team.

To be fair, if your three starters were named Johnson, Clemens and Maddux, you’d probably still feel more comfortable with one more arm. You should always feel better with one more arm. Show me a person who thinks you have enough or even too much pitching, I’ll show you a lunatic. So definitely, with three guys who you’d want to be 2’s or 3’s in your playoff roster, you’d love to have another option or two. Also, I’m calling BS on you if you think that a team with starters the caliber of Boyd, Imanaga and Horton has never won a World Series. Their margin of error will not be massive. But they aren’t dead in the water.

It feels totally disjointed with those first four months, but the entire question will be, can the monster that was the Cubs pre All-Star break offense reappear? It feels unlikely. But is it impossible? There’s a lot of time. What stopped it? If it is simply opponent scouting and execution, why did it take them so long to get there?

Saturday afternoon, the Cub offense managed nine hits and drew three walks. Just one extra base hit for the Cubs, that was a double. That was a key hit, but the extra base didn’t end up coming into play. They stole two bases and one of those eventually became a run. The decisive run. Eight of the nine Cubs reached base at least once and five of them reached twice. There was a lot of depth and balance in the offense.

This was probably not the most satisfying win of all time. But it’s a win. It’s win number 69. If the Cubs split their final 40 games, they’ll have 89 wins. Fangraphs projects the Cubs as the second Wild Card and that feels right. They don’t have anyone particularly close as the third Wild Card and in the scenario where the Reds reach the playoffs, it looks like the Mets missing.

40 games left to get things right. I refuse to give up hope. Come along for the ride.

Pirates: 109, 35 BF (8 IP)Cubs: 120, 34 BF

The Pirates are at about 13.5 pitches per inning. That’s pretty effective. Three relievers for the Pirates, but only one threw more than 20 pitches, that was Kyle Nicolas who threw 25 pitches to eight batters and recorded six outs. Nicolas is probably right up against the line for being used in Sunday’s series finale.

The Cubs were also in about that 13.5 PPI. Again, very effective. So much credit to Imanaga for getting through seven on 85 pitches. Cub pitching controlled pitches while striking out 11. Both Cub relievers that worked in this one also worked Friday. It’s hard to imagine seeing either Brad Keller or Andrew Kittredge throwing Sunday, save for either an extra inning or very specific one-off situation. Especially ahead of five games in four days with the Brewers. Let’s hope Daniel Palencia is ready to go Sunday and he and the depth Cub relievers can nail down another win.

Shota Imanaga 7 IP, 3 H, 2 BB, 6 K. He has flat out dominated the Pirates in his career.Brad Keller IP, 3 K, Sv. Stepped up with Palencia down.Kyle Tucker. A pair of singles, a stolen base and scored the first two runs.

Game 122, August 16: Cubs 3, Pirates 1 (69-53)

Reminder: Heroes and Goats are determined by WPA scores and are in no way subjective.

Superhero: Shōta Imanaga (.296). 7 IP, 26 BF, 3 H, 2 BB, ER, 6 KHero: Seiya Suzuki (.173). 2-4, RBI, RSidekick: Andrew Kittredge (.104). IP, 4 BF, H, 2 K (W 3-3)Billy Goat: Dansby Swanson (-.119). 0-4Goat: Ian Happ (-.054). 0-2, 2 BBKid: Matt Shaw/Michael Busch (-.052). Shaw: 1-3, DP; Busch: 1-4

WPA Play of the Game: Seiya Suzuki’s RBI-single in the eighth inning gave the Cubs a 2-1 lead. (.170)

*Pirates Play of the Game: Tommy Pham’s one-out homer in the fourth for the game’s first run. (.134)

Game 120 Winner: Matthew Boyd 37 out of 53 votes.

Game 121 Winner: Colin Rea 74 out of 90 votes.

Rizzo Award Standings: (Top 5/Bottom 5)

The award is named for Anthony Rizzo, who finished first in this category three of the first four years it was in existence and four times overall. He also recorded the highest season total ever at +65.5. The point scale is three points for a Superhero down to negative three points for a Billy Goat.

Kyle Tucker +24Matthew Boyd +23Shōta Imanaga +20Michael Busch +12.67Jameson Taillon/Miguel Amaya +11Carson Kelly -13Julian Merryweather -15Ben Brown -16Dansby Swanson -23.33Seiya Suzuki -27

Up Next: Third and final game of the series Sunday afternoon. Javier Assad (0-1, 9.00, 4 IP) will make his second start of the season. It was definitely rough in Toronto. This is the perfect spot for Javier. He’ll get to face a weak Pirate offense, then miss the Brewers series while Jameson Taillon and the other four current members of the Cub rotation each get a turn. If Assad pitches well, there is some sense to going six starters through, at least one more time. Otherwise, he shuffles to the pen and Taillon resumes his spot in the rotation. Again, I think the Cubs are pretty secure to reach the playoffs, so if Assad and Taillon can contribute, I’m all for them going six man down the stretch. Get there fresh.

Righty Carmen Mlodzinski (2-7, 4.20, 75 IP) starts for the Pirates. The good news for the Pirates is that he’s got a 1.84 over his last seen appearances. The bad? That only covers 14.2 innings. He’s doing this as a reliever. He’s not giving them any bulk. He last started on May 17. He last threw more than four innings on May 5. He’s got two appearances against the Cubs this year, one start. He’s thrown six innings and allowed two runs on nine hits. They should beat this guy.

I look for Assad to bounce back strong and the Cubs to win this series.