All it takes in baseball to win is timely hitting and timely pitching. It builds momentum. Baseball is a what can you do for me now game.

Another win for the Cubs today has me looking up. Is this team done? To some extent no. But other ways, yes. An upcoming schedule of Cincinnati followed by San Francisco, St. Louis, San Diego and Atlanta is ridiculous. That might be the toughest 17 day stretch in all of baseball. Each of these teams are at or near first place contention.

But writing this as a Cubs fan, of course I admit to always, and I mean always, believing. It’s culture to us.

You can just tell that by how this team looks and how this team is playing since the All-Star break that something is clicking. Six wins out of ten. What if Aramis Ramirez was hitting in May instead of July? Would this team be 10 games back of first place? One player can usually make a team. Just look at St. Louis with Albert Pujols or Minnesota with Justin Morneau. Chicago can beat anybody just by the look of their lineup when healthy.

The Cubs can become sellers if they want since the trade deadline is in eight days, but the fans, and I, wouldn’t be happy to see a guy like Ryan Theriot or Sean Marshall go. Or they can stay put, stick with the current team and fight to end the year around .500 ball. It’s not whether this team will make the playoffs because they won’t. This team won’t see first place in the NL Central. But things can become interesting if they play like they should. This team is likable.