It’s always darkest just before the dawn…I hope

The Cubs just suffered through their first 4-game sweep of the season, and after the euphoria of clinching a return to the playoffs, there are lots of reason for pessimism. But I feel like in this season, the Cubs have never allowed their fans to feel too good about things, but just as things have looked ugly, they’ve found a way to reverse course back to positivity.

Here’s my list of things I’m not feeling great about:

• Kyle Tucker’s injury and availability for the playoffs
• The struggles of Matthew Boyd and Shota Imanaga, two presumed starters for the playoffs
• The continues struggles of the offense as a whole, getting shut out twice on 4 days.
• The injury to Daniel Palencia, and whether he will be ready and effective for the playoffs
• The failure of Porter Hodge to recapture his magic from last season that would have allowed him to be a shutdown inning guy in the playoffs
• Allowing the Brewers to clinch in NL Central leaves them no incentive against the Padres for the next 3 games – leaving the door open if the Cubs can’t take care of business against the Mets and Cardinals

So let’s turn things around, and see how some of these negative could turn into positives:

• Tucker returns and spurs on the Cubs offense in the last few regular season games and the playoffs
• Boyd and Imanaga return to form for playoff games, and have very effective Colin Rea and Jameson Taillon as options to replace or relieve them
• Palencia, who looked good in a minor league rehab appearance (from a velocity and command perspective) will shine in the postseason:
• The absence of Hodge make room for Soroka and Assad…and possibly another hitter (going with 14/12 hitters to pitchers instead of 13/13) which might allow them to add Billy Hamilton as a pinch runner, who steal 2nd and 3rd, andl score a key run in a close playoff game
• The sweep by the Reds will wake up the team, and push them into a win streak against the Mets and Cardinals that will carry into the postseason

Will one of those things happen? Probably. Two? Maybe. More than 2….probably not. But in this mild malaise brought on by the 4-game sweep, it’s good to remember that the Cubs will be playing in the playoffs, and they are still a big favorite to host the Wild Card series.