As schedule breaks in their favor, Taylor Swift-inspired Cubs lighting it up

With the most important month of regular season approaching, the red-hot Chicago Cubs find themselves only five games behind the Atlanta Braves for the final NL wild-card spot entering play Friday.

Their recent surge — winning seven of their past 10 games, including a sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates in their three-game series — has made Chicago one of the baseball's hotter teams.

Cubs manager Craig Counsell gives credit for the recent hot streak to an unlikely source.

“I was gifted a Taylor Swift candle, and we’ve been lighting that before games in my office ... clubhouse manager Danny Miller (and I),” he told Marquee Sports Network earlier this week. "We’ve been on a nice little run here, so we’re going to credit Taylor Swift.”

 Per FanGraphs, however, Chicago has just a 3.8% chance to make the postseason.

Over the past week, the Cubs' offense reached new heights, scoring 73 runs in seven games and reviving the team's chances of making the postseason. In that span, the Cubs posted a .323/.424/.579 slash line as a team, the highest marks in the majors.

A favorable remaining schedule presents a potential opportunity for the Cubs to close the gap on the Braves.

Of the remaining 28 games for Chicago (68-66), 19 are against teams with losing records. This includes series against the Nationals (61-73), Pirates (62-71), Rockies (50-85), Athletics (58-76) and Reds (64-70).

In the other nine games, though, the Cubs will face significant challenges with series against the Dodgers (80-54), Phillies (79-55) and Yankees (78-56) — the teams with the three best records in the majors.

With just a month remaining in the regular season, first-year manager Counsell and the Cubs aim to make a playoff push. Their odds are long, but if they remain hot, perhaps they'll make the postseason for the first time since 2020 and send along a gift to Swift as an appreciation.