WASHINGTON — It couldn’t have been too happy of a flight home for the Cubs after a shutout loss Thursday in the nation’s capital.
But a look at the standings ought to have them feeling all right.
They woke up Thursday just three games back of the division lead in the NL Central, having taken advantage of the rival Brewers getting swept this week in San Diego.
It’s as close as the Cubs had been since late May, the race constricting with just 40 games remaining on their regular-season schedule.
That’s still a lot of race to run, and a lot can happen.
But the way this team has played this summer, the postseason looks like its October destination, and a lengthy stay could be in store for a group that’s had winning a World Series on the mind since getting together in Arizona six months ago.
Before they can start shifting focus to the postseason, though, there are 40 games to play.
“It’s no different than when we started spring training, where we were a month ago or where we are today. Today is the only thing that matters,” lefty starter Matthew Boyd said Thursday. “It’s fine to look and believe in where we want to go. We know where we want to go. We know where we can go and what we’re able to do. There’s no limit on that.
“However, having those thoughts — which are natural, and they will happen, because there’s excitement behind it — you always have to bring it back to what’s expected of you in this moment. That’s the balance, understanding, ‘This is where I’ve got to be right now.’
“You can think about [the end goal], but you’ve got to come back to what’s important right now and attack that.”
Gausman’s clunker
Trade-deadline acquisition Kevin Gausman’s first two starts in a Cubs uniform bookended the team’s 4-2 road trip through Kansas City and Washington, though the second was a far cry from the first.
Gausman couldn’t get out of the fifth inning Thursday, allowing six runs on seven hits and a walk. That fifth inning unraveled on him, as he allowed four runs with two outs.
“I couldn’t stop the bleeding,” he said after the game. “I wasn’t good enough to get through six today.”
He wasn’t good enough to get through five, in actuality, but his mention of a six-inning goal reflects part of the reason the Cubs traded for him, to pitch deep into games and dominate as a top-of-the-rotation arm.
That’s what they got in his first start, a seven-inning, two-run performance against the Royals, but against the Nationals’ best-in-baseball offense, things didn’t go so hot.
Though Cubs brass wasn’t sweating this year’s elevated ERA — now up to 4.53 after posting a collective 3.48 mark in the previous four seasons — they’re surely hoping his next turn looks a lot more like Start No. 1 than Start No. 2.
Miller right
Righty reliever Shelby Miller struck out all three batters he faced in a minor league rehab outing Wednesday with Double-A Knoxville.
Miller is still weeks away from a potential return to the big league mound, but his recovery from elbow surgery has impressed the Cubs, who signed him uncertain if he’d be able to pitch at all in 2026.
“Shelby’s just getting started,” manager Craig Counsell said Thursday. “The key, anytime guys are coming off the big surgeries, it’s not necessarily the outings you worry about, it’s the recovery between the outings that you think about the most. Making sure that continues to go well is the priority.”
