Ike leaves Cubs fans sitting on their hands

By Steven Chaitman | Sep 13, 7:43 PM

Now that Hurricane Ike has blown over, hopefully the Cubs losing ways have officially done the same.

While you definitely had to hold your breath in St. Louis during Kerry Wood's two save appearances, the good news was that this time it turned out in the Cubs' favor.

Now they have finally won a September series and find themselves 6 games up on the Brewers. How we came out of this storm in that situation blows my mind, but the magic number is now 10.

As damaging as Ike has been, Cub fans have to feel somewhat relieved not to face (for the moment) a Houston Astros team putting together a surge of Colorado Rockies-like proportions. While they won't come close to catching the Cubs, the wild card is certainly not out of the question at 2.5 games back.

So, what should Northsiders be preoccupying themselves with in the meantime? I think I would personally like to see a bit more consistency in the lineup. While I don't mind the Cubs waiting until September to go on a tear, you'd like to see this offense explode for more than 6 runs every 3 or 4 games just to show they can be consistently dangerous heading into the postseason.

Basically, I'm fine just waiting around until the games with the Brewers and New York Mets. With the magic number at 10, the Cubs could knock the Brewers out earlier than expected with good play and 6 games with that opportunity. The Mets series will show how playoff ready the Cubs are. All eyes will be on that series.

For now, I hope you all have taken the last couple of days to get your blood pressure down. I can't tell you if watching the Bears tomorrow will help that at all, but at least they've got less on the line than the Cubs at this point.