Rogers: Cubs to go full tilt vs. Cardinals

CHICAGO — Nothing personal.

But the Cardinals should know that it doesn’t matter that the Cubs clinched the National League Central title a week ago. There will be two teams trying their hardest to win games at Wrigley Field this weekend.

As desperate as the Cards are to pick up wins, the Cubs are only three victories away from 100 and would love to get there by Sunday night, even if it might seem like piling on.

Beating the Cardinals at least twice this weekend would lock up home-field advantage over the Nationals throughout the NL portion of the postseason, but the bigger implications are in the Wild Card race. The Cardinals are a half-game behind the Mets and Giants as we enter the last 10 days of the regular season.

Because of that, manager Joe Maddon said earlier in the week he will “play straight up” against the Cardinals, waiting until series next week in Pittsburgh and Cincinnati to rest some regulars, get work for relievers who need it and experiment with matchups.

“With all respect to everybody, you’ve got to play these next three games right,” Maddon said. “Not that I don’t trust our other guys, but industrywide, you just want to be able to do that.”

The injury-riddled Cardinals are fighting to extend their franchise-best postseason streak to six seasons. If the Cubs can sweep the series or even just win two of three, they would do a lot to damage those chances, and in the process demonstrate how clearly they have turned this classic Midwest …

continue reading in source mlb.mlb.com