Cubs head to St. Louis with something to prove against Cardinals

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Let's go.

That's the Cubs' marketing slogan for the 2015 season and it's also Joe Maddon's attitude with his team facing one of the biggest series of the season - a three-game set with the Cardinals down in St. Louis.

"It should be a blast," Maddon said. "Let's go. Let's go get 'em. It's the most fun part of the year."

Before the Cubs went out and finished off a sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks Sunday at Wrigley Field, Maddon sat inside the air-conditioned cramped interview room and spoke at length about how he hopes his players aren't looking at this series with the Cardinals as a difficult moment.

He wants them to be excited, but to also process everything going on "because we expect it to happen in the years to come."

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Maddon is also preparing to take on baseball's best team without rookie sensation Kyle Schwarber in the lineup. Schwarber is dealing with a rib injury and while he already said his goal is to return for Monday's Labor Day matinee at Busch Stadium, Maddon needs to gameplan without Schwarber until he gets the green light.

The Cubs go into this series trailing the Cardinals by almost 10 games and with only four weeks left in the season, winning the NL Central is going to be difficult.

But Maddon and the Cubs want to make a statement to their divisional rival.

"We need to put a little doubt in their mind that we can beat them even in their place," Kyle Hendricks said.

"We can beat anybody," Miguel Montero said. "We just have to prove it. We can say we can beat them and we have the better team, but there's only one way to find out. Let's win it."

As the young and inexperienced Cubs have entered the stretch run, Maddon has continually talked about having a mindset focused on one day at a time, going on a bunch of "one-game winning streaks." The Cubs had a "one-game winning streak" Sunday and Maddon's goal is to do the same Monday and keep going with that mindset.

But Maddon also admits the next step for the Cubs is to beat the Cardinals in St. Louis, which could do wonders for this team moving forward.

"You've gotta beat 'em in their ballpark," he said. "I've been through this before. When you're playing really good teams like that, you eventually have to beat them in their own ballpark. And that matters.

"We played well down there a lot and we've given up leads late. If we grab the lead, we've gotta learn how to hold on to it there there. That's the next learning step for us."

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The Cubs' playoff odds sit around 98 percent, thanks to a 7.5-game lead over the Washington Nationals for the second NL wild card. But their goal right now is to "get over that hump," as Hendricks said, against the Cardinals.

The Cubs are a different team than they were at the end of June, when they were swept out of Busch Stadium by the Cardinals, scoring just four runs in the three games. That series prompted Maddon to get that magician for the clubhouse in New York. The Cubs have gone 39-22 since.

The clubhouse may be packed with rookies and young players who haven't been through a pennant race before, but the Cubs are heading into the series with the confidence of a team that's hitting its stride at the right time and the understanding they can stick with what's been working.

"There's no need to change anything," Kris Bryant said. "No need to get all hyped up for it. It's just another baseball game that we're gonna go out and try to win."

Said Montero: "They got the best record in baseball for a reason. We just gotta keep playing the way we've been playing and the rest will take care of itself. We can't put that much pressure on ourselves, either."

David Ross is a seasoned veteran with a World Series ring and 14 years of experience in the big leagues. He was brought in to help coach along the youngsters in the clubhouse and as Maddon continues to preach a mindset on only the task at hand, Ross sees it paying dividends.

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"We know we're a good team," he said. "But they go out and prove it every day. They grind at-bats, they know what it takes. It's a fun group to be a part of.

"I don't think we're looking too far ahead or anything like that. It's a good team and we still got a lot of growing to do, which is scary.

"Isn't that scary? We can get better."

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