‘Nobody’s hanging their heads’: Chicago Cubs maintain daily focus as season nears its end

When the end to the Chicago Cubs’ season arrives, the organization will dive in and dissect what went wrong.

They entered the regular-season’s penultimate game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday still mathematically alive to make the playoffs, though it would require winning their last two games and getting help from the Miami Marlins and Cincinnati Reds. It’s setting up the finality to a disappointing ending from an underwhelming performance over the final three weeks.

Manager David Ross acknowledged his surprise by how September played out for the Cubs.

“We haven’t played our best baseball down the stretch,” Ross said. “One thing I was looking at the other night it’s you look at the Orioles of last year and not being able to make the postseason and then building upon something and how you continue to build. I would put this team in that category.

“We’re much better than we were last year and we put ourselves in a position to make the playoffs,” Ross said. “Have we played our best baseball as of late? No. That could come in different months and you’re not even in this race down the stretch. If I had a rhyme or reason for it we’d try to fix it or change something, but we’re going to rely on the guys that got us here and they’re going to play to the end.”

After Friday’s loss to the Brewers, their fourth straight, Ross thought the Cubs might have been playing tight. However, he disagreed with the notion that the Cubs were running on fumes and believes the energy is still there.

Ross reiterated before Saturday’s game that players have remained locked in and giving it their all each day regardless of the tough losses.

“Nobody’s hanging their heads,” Ross said. “It’s the same attitude, same conversations, the work stays consistent of trying to grow and get better. … You do that for 162 (games) and you try to look up at the end and hope you’re in the playoffs. So these guys understand that, there’s a lot of guys that have been a part of winning for a really long time and real professionals on this team.

“Backs have been against the wall for a really long time, and they’ve answered the bill consistently. So I’m proud of this group of how they come every single day because it is a group that is very resilient to adversity.”

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