Cubs look to be turning corner heading into series with sinking Sox

By Tom Musick

Willson Contreras celebrates his two-run home run against the Cardinals during the sixth inning Sunday at Wrigley Field. | Jon Durr/Getty Images

Now and then, Javy Baez bumps into White Sox fans as he walks around the city. He enjoys meeting them.

“They’re OK with me,” Baez said with a smile. “We understand.”

Then Baez goes his way, and opposing fans go theirs. Kind of like how the Cubs and Sox are heading in opposite directions as the crosstown series opens this week with two games at Wrigley Field before switching to the South Side for two more games.

After a frustrating first half, the Cubs are starting to sense that their magic might be back.

“I actually felt it at the end of the first half,” Carl Edwards Jr. said. “It was only a matter of time for everything to start clicking.”

Confident? Yes. Cocky? Maybe.

But the Cubs, who improved to 8-1 since the All-Star break with a 5-3 victory Sunday against the Cardinals, are not afraid to admit that they carry some swagger. It’s evident in their choreographed dugout greetings before games and their dance parties in the bullpen after big home runs.

“Everybody’s flowing off each other and enjoying watching each other play great baseball,” said Ian Happ, a newcomer to the Cubs-Sox series. “The atmosphere you have in this clubhouse, how close all of us are, is great. Every time there’s somebody up at the plate, the entire dugout, you’ve got 10 or 11 guys going through the at-bat with you and rooting for you.”

Lately, the Cubs have had plenty to root for at the plate. They have scored 56 runs in nine games since the break.

The Cubs’ starting pitching has been heating up, too. Their starters are 7-0 with a 2.41 ERA since the break.

Kyle Hendricks will return to the rotation Monday after a seven-week stint on the disabled list. Hendricks should bolster a rotation that picked up ex-Sox ace Jose Quintana earlier this month.

“Getting Kyle back together with this particular group really -interesting to watch right now,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “I think that’s also going to be a shot in the arm among the group just like Jose [gave us] in Baltimore. You can definitely feel a difference in the attitude.”

Meanwhile, Maddon appreciates how Sox manager Rick Renteria has kept his team playing hard amid a massive rebuilding project. The Sox have lost nine in a row and own the worst record in the American League.

“He’s rooted in development,” Maddon said. “He gets it. He understands how all that plays out.”

For the Cubs, the strategy played out to a World Series championship.

This year’s Cubs are not perfect, but they are improving. The magic that Edwards senses in the clubhouse manifests itself in the way players arrive every day expecting to win.

“I feel like we’re kind of selling ourselves short if we don’t think that way, if we don’t have that mindset,” Jason Heyward said. “Everyone understands you have to go out there and play the game. You’re not going to show up any day and it’s an automatic win — we’ve seen enough of that this season alone.

“Right now, we’re going in the right direction. A lot of good things are happening, but you can’t let off the gas now. We’re not in a situation to do that. We’ve got to keep pushing.”

Follow me on Twitter @tcmusick.