What if I told you …

The Chicago Cubs were about to embark on a stretch of 30 straight days of scheduled games, 16 of which would be on the road, and the Cubs would travel to a new city 10 times, including twice going to a city for a single game. The Cubs would also be waiting out a dozen hours of rain delays, and would have to pick up a suspended game the following day. Further, 17 of the 29 games that were ultimately played would come against teams with winning records.

What kind of record for those 29 games would you consider … acceptable? Good? Great? Incredible?

On the season, the Chicago Cubs – who have the best record in the National League – have a .586 winning percentage.

For these 30 days of hell, the Chicago Cubs went 18-11. That’s a .621 winning percentage.

If that’s not an incredible outcome, I don’t know what is.

The Cubs came into this stretch of games with a 2.5-game lead in the NL Central over the Brewers, then the second best team in the NL. Over this time, the Brewers have felt like an unstoppable force, almost never losing, includig taking four of six from the Cubs. Yet, here at the end of these 30 days, they stand no closer to the Cubs than they started: 2.5 games back.

If and when the Cubs make the postseason this year, there can be no doubt that everyone should look back at this insane stretch, dictated by the weather and MLB, as something the Cubs overcame with implausible success. Throw in the fact that the Cubs didn’t have Kris Bryant, Pedro Strop, Jason Heyward, or Kyle Schwarber for much of it, didn’t have Brandon Morrow or Yu Darvish for any of it … and there really is only one word for what the Cubs have done.

Incredible.

Enjoy the off-day, gentlemen. You’ve earned it. Just make sure that when you return to the field tomorrow, you’re still playing with whatever fire lit you up over the past month.