But the St. Louis Cardinals suddenly have begun to show signs of life, creeping within a game of the Cubs, who haven\u2019t had a prolonged hot streak yet.<\/p>\n
Swanson, who has lifted his average from .181 to .248 the last couple of weeks, appears to have reverted to his default setting. He helped lift the offense Monday before a crowd of 32,271 and credited his streak to the Red Bull drink that Nicky Lopez started giving him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s literally one small sip from Nicky,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s the key, I\u2019m telling you.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Swanson was speaking, he glanced up at the clubhouse TV.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a Red Bull commercial on right now, by the way,\u201d he said in another unpaid endorsement.<\/p>\n
The Cubs were mostly happy to escape New York<\/a>, where they could\u2019ve emerged with a series win Sunday only to see the bullpen falter in a 6-2 loss to the Mets<\/a>.<\/p>\n This upcoming stretch of softer-than-softies started with the Marlins, who have the worst pitching in the NL and are in another in an unending series of rebuilds. The Cubs also will miss Miami\u2019s best starter, Sandy Alcantara, who very well could wind up in a Cubs uniform at the trade deadline if President Jed Hoyer can come up with the right package of prospects.<\/p>\n Next up is the White Sox. Nothing more needs to be said.<\/a><\/p>\n It\u2019s always an intense series between Chicago\u2019s two major-league teams, and after the Sox organization trolled the Cubs last weekend<\/a> over the Cubs\u2019 premature ownership of Pope Leo XIV\u2019s fandom<\/a>, nothing less than a sweep of the American League\u2019s worst team would suffice for Cubs fans.<\/p>\n Of course, you can throw away the records whenever these teams meet and the pope is involved<\/a>. Cubs manager Craig Counsell is 4-0 against the Sox since coming to Chicago and would like to keep his perfect record intact.<\/p>\n Then it\u2019s down to Miami, where the Cubs return to the scene of Pete Crow-Armstrong\u2019s inside-the-park home run last August. The Marlins are 4-13 over their last 17 games and just lost two of three to the Sox<\/a> during their weeklong residency in Chicago. It\u2019s not a franchise on the rise, but at least they conned their city and state into building them a new stadium no one goes to.<\/p>\n After the Marlins, the Cubs travel to Cincinnati for their first series against the Reds, whom some experts picked to win the NL Central because of new manager Terry Francona. But they\u2019re the same old Reds so far, and not even Francona\u2019s genius can change that.<\/p>\n The Cubs return home after Cincy to face the Colorado Rockies, who look ready to smash the 2024 White Sox\u2019s record<\/a> for most losses in a season. The Rockies not only are the worst team in the majors, they might be worse than most Triple-A teams.<\/p>\n Unlike the 1962 Mets, all of the \u201824 Sox players are still alive, so recollections of that record-breaking season will be easy to find come September when the Rockies go for loss No. 122,<\/p>\n The Reds make their first trip to Wrigley after the Rockies, and then the Cubs are off to Washington for a three-game series with the Nationals, yet another rebuilding team. At least the Nats seem close to being competitive, so they figure to be the toughest of the softies.<\/p>\n The long, casual walk on the sandy beach ends for the Cubs on June 6, when they travel to Detroit to face the Tigers, a real team that successfully executed its rebuild and could be a pennant contender.<\/p>\n Of course, it\u2019s baseball and anything can happen.<\/p>\n The Cubs will remind us these are all major-league teams they\u2019re playing, as every team is obligated to say when playing teams it should beat. Rest assured the Cubs know this is their opportunity to cash in and separate themselves from the Cardinals.<\/p>\n Coming off back-to-back series losses to the Giants and Mets, the Cubs were locked in a scoreless game with the Marlins in the fifth before Swanson\u2019s two-run homer off Cal Quantrill opened the gates.<\/p>\n An RBI triple by Kyle Tucker and Suzuki\u2019s two-run blast, his 10th of the season, were more than enough to subdue Miami \u2014 even with left fielder and leadoff man Ian Happ missing his third straight game<\/a> with an oblique injury and reportedly headed to the injured list<\/a>. Catcher\/DH Mois\u00e9s Ballesteros will be called up from Triple-A Iowa according to the WSCR-AM 670 report.<\/p>\n Rea carried a shutout into the seventh before being removed after a two-out, two-run home run by Derek Hill.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t feel flashy, it doesn\u2019t feel overpowering, but it\u2019s good,\u201d Counsell said of Rea.<\/p>\n The same could be said of the Cubs, who\u2019ve been just good enough so far.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s another level they can get to, and this is their opportunity to take the next step.<\/p>\n Originally Published: May 12, 2025 at 11:13 PM CDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Cubs have been waiting for a more relaxing stretch of the schedule, a chance to beat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,138,24,4245,576,161,733,58,4,6531,3480],"class_list":{"0":"post-22881","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-cubs","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-cubs","11":"tag-chicagocubs","12":"tag-craig-counsell","13":"tag-cubs","14":"tag-dansby-swanson","15":"tag-miami-marlins","16":"tag-mlb","17":"tag-pope-leo-xiv","18":"tag-sandy-alcantara"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114498743144092881","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/CTC-L-CUBS2.jpg\")
The Cubs\u2019 Dansby Swanson and Pete Crow-Armstrong celebrate after defeating the Marlins on Monday, May 12, 2025, at Wrigley Field. (Michael Reaves\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n![\"Fans](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/CTC-L-CUBS1.jpg\")
Fans clap for Cubs starter Colin Rea as he is removed from the game during the seventh inning against the Marlins on Monday, May 12, 2025, at Wrigley Field. (Michael Reaves\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n