The Cubs are coming.
In fact, you could make the case they've already arrived.
The Cubs walked it off over the Los Angeles Dodgers in 10 innings Tuesday night in a 1-0 thriller in front of 36,799 fans at Wrigley Field.
This was the Cubs' ninth walk-off victory of the year, tops in Major League Baseball. They are now 8-3 in extra inning contests.
[SHOP: Gear up, Cubs fans!]
"The thing we've been harping on since spring training was to play nine innings hard every night," manager Joe Maddon said. "You just have to keep coming after them. You can't quit. The word 'grinding' is used a lot in Major League Baseball, but we just had to convince our guys that that's the way to do this.
"It doesn't just happen. You have to take things. Nobody gives you anything here.
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"I love the way our guys are going about their business."
Little-used outfielder Mike Baxter led off the 10th with a single and Matt Szczur - who homered off Clayton Kershaw Monday night - followed with an infield hit off the glove of Alberto Callaspo at third base. Pinch-hitter Dexter Fowler was swinging away - "We eschewed the bunt," Maddon said - and ended up walking to load the bases with nobody out.
Rookie Addison Russell then fought off pitch after pitch from Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen before bouncing a grounder to Adrian Gonzalez at first base, who threw home to get the force.
[MORE - Addison Russell gaining confidence as he gets back to playing his game]
Chris Denorfia - who entered the game in the eighth - was up next and delivered the game-winner: a fly ball to left center that brought home Szczur.
That makes four wins in a row for the Cubs, including back-to-back victories against a team that leads the National League West and started Kershaw and Zack Greinke in the first two games of the series.
"I think you're looking at a team coming together and it has been together," Denorfia said. "We're all pulling in the same direction. There's no individuals in this locker room. We all know what we're playing for and how to get there.
"I think you saw the last couple days just what we're capable of - pitching awesome, playing good defense and getting some timely hits."
The Cubs forced Greinke to throw 111 pitches through six innings, getting into the Dodgers bullpen somewhat early on a night when neither team was able to muster up any offense.
Jason Hammel was magnificent for the Cubs, throwing 7.2 innings, allowing only two hits and two walks. One of those hits was a pop fly off the bat of Yasiel Puig that Szczur and Baxter lost in the lights.
Hammel had struggled in his last two starts leading up to Tuesday, giving up four earned runs on 10 hits and five walks in nine innings earlier in the month. He said the key to Tuesday was fastball command, which makes him a "different pitcher."
[MORE: Maddon expects Cubs front office will deliver at trade deadline]
The Cubs are 39-30, sitting with the third-best record in the National League and in the second wild card spot if the season ended Tuesday night.
But it's still only June. More than half the season is left, as Hammel made sure to point out - "We've got three months to go."
That being said, there's plenty of reason for optimism on the North Side.
"We don't quit," Hammel said. "Twenty-five guys on this team that are gonna make some type of help to the game at some point. They're going to make some type of impression on the team, whether it's one at-bat, one swing, one throw.
"The guys are ready to play. It's all hands on deck right now. It's been like that for three months and it's not gonna change."