Imagine a Cubs bullpen without Wade Davis, working under the bright lights of the World Series, trying to contain an explosive Houston Astros offense with the roof closed at Minute Maid Park.

That’s a scary Halloween thought for a manager who got second-guessed throughout October, a front office philosophically opposed to big-money, long-term contracts for closers and a fan base that now expects to be watching playoff baseball every year at Wrigley Field.

But the Cubs can’t be the team they envision — winning between 88 and 100-plus games every season for the foreseeable future and putting another World Series flag next to the iconic center-field scoreboard — without Davis or another elite ninth-inning pitcher.

“He’s got huge balls,” Cubs president Theo Epstein said. “No moment’s too big for him.”

Davis — who seemed to purposely avoid talking about The Streak when he set a franchise record by converting his first 32 save chances in a Cubs uniform — is about as low-maintenance and drama-free as an All-Star closer gets.

You might not remember any of those regular-season saves or his Wrigley Field warm-up music (Dr. Dre’s “Ackrite”). But Davis made a lasting playoff impression with his epic elimination-game save against the Washington Nationals (seven outs, 44 pitches) and gutsy Game 4 performance in the National League Championship Series (six outs, 48 pitches).

“He wants the ball,” Epstein said. “And he can get good hitters out, because he’s got stuff that when he executes it, it’s just about impossible to square up.”

If getting dominated by the Los Angeles Dodgers in that NLCS was an eye-opening experience — their relievers faced 58 hitters and gave up four hits and allowed zero runs in 17 innings — then the World Series should be another reminder of how much work the Cubs have to do to get back there.

While the Astros have so far been able to outhit their very shaky bullpen, Los Angeles is one loss away from a World Series failure because its relievers headed into Tuesday night’s must-win Game 6 at Dodger Stadium with a 5.32 ERA (15 total runs allowed in 23.2 innings).

Outside of Pedro Strop for an at-bat or two — and maybe Carl Edwards Jr. if he’s on that night or lefty Mike Montgomery in the right matchup — is there anyone on the Cubs roster now that you would trust to face George Springer, Alex Bregman, Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa in a one-run game?

Another October with a hyper-focus on the bullpen means Davis will get paid as a free agent, the year after a record-setting winter for closers, though even he doesn’t seem to think that Aroldis Chapman’s five-year, $86 million megadeal with the New York Yankees is a realistic target.

But it’s also not realistic to think that the Cubs can take a mix-and-match approach with the ninth inning or hope an internal candidate can grow into the high-pressure job in 2018. Elite closers have an outsized influence on the contending teams the Cubs expect to be between here and 2021.

“What they’ve proven is — when you’re on the verge of extinction — how valuable they are,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “Because not everybody can handle those moments. Aroldis was able to dominate. I can’t tell you necessarily that Wade has dominated, but Wade knows how to pitch to the point where he’s going to get both righties and lefties out, based on his pitch-ability.

“Chappy was more of this blunt object. He just could overpower people, but he could do it often. There are certain guys when you get really back to the wall ... there’s not many of them, but those that are out there are really, really valuable.”

Maybe the Cubs have valid concerns about a pitcher who recently turned 32 and spent parts of the 2016 season on the disabled list with a forearm strain and a flexor strain. There could be bigger needs —  like replacing 40 percent of the rotation —  and multiple holes to fill in the bullpen. But Davis went above and beyond what the Cubs could have hoped for when they traded Jorge Soler to the Kansas City Royals during last year’s winter meetings.

“We’d love to have Wade Davis back,” Epstein said during his year-end Wrigley Field press conference. “We all know it’s more complicated that that. Wanting doesn’t mean having. And it’s a complicated landscape in the offseason.”

MILWAUKEE — Javy Baez recorded the first-ever three-walk game of his career Thursday night and reached base a career-high five times, but that wasn't what anybody wanted to talk about after the Cubs' 8-0 win.

It was what Javy did ON the bases that mattered, not how he got there.

After 19 straight scoreless innings, the Cubs offense was in need of a boost. Baez delivered first with his bat, then with his legs.

After a two-run single plated Albert Almora Jr. and Addison Russell, Baez advanced to third when Milwaukee second baseman Hernan Perez booted Jon Lester's routine ground ball.

But when Baez saw Lorenzo Cain bobble the ball in center field backing up the play, "El Mago" reacted immediately and sprinted toward home. It took a miraculous slide, but he got his hand in there before Jett Bandy's tag and just like that, Lester had a three-run lead to work with.

"We've seen that before, man," Joe Maddon said. "He's got eyes in the back of his head. He's gonna make a great parent. He's just got that stuff. He just knows what's going on. When he does that, it doesn't surprise. At all."

Lester was equally impressed.

"Javy never ceases to amaze people with what he's able to do on the basepaths, let alone with his defense and everything else," the veteran pitcher said. "He's always going to play the game aggressively and it always seems to work out for us.

"I think the slide was even more impressive than him reading that ball and getting home. That's always a nice thing to have on your side."

It was only the top of the second inning, but it seemed to be a knockout blow for the Brewers, who never scored and allowed the Cubs an extra five insurance runs later in the game.

"When you do stuff like that, when you make mistakes on defense and the other team takes advantage, it normally does hit you in the solarplex a bit," Maddon said. "Javy has had that experience on the bases before. He's always heads up. Always.

"If you watch him, he will look behind to see what's going on. Going back in the day, you saw Willie Mays doing that a lot. He's got extraordinary instincts on the bases."

After the game, Baez couldn't help but smirk at all the questions from reports about his baserunning.

He understands his role hitting eighth in the lineup with the pitcher's spot behind him, so he doesn't want to be too aggressive and run into outs on the basepaths, but the Cubs also aren't trying to coach the "El Mago" out of Baez.

"They let me run the bases how I want to and I obviously have fun out there," Baez said. "If you pay attention to where you need to be and wherever the sign is coming from, you really know everything.

"In that moment, I was just reacting to that play and hustling down the line."

MILWAUKEE — Ben Zobrist is learning to deal with the roller coaster that is his Cubs career.

In Year 1, he took less money elsewhere to sign with his childhood team, wound up spending most of the year hitting cleanup and providing protection for Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant, laid down the bunt that got an ice-cold offense rolling in the NLCS in Los Angeles and then connecting on the hit that ended a 108-year championship drought and earned him World Series MVP honors.

Year 2 was a completely different chapter, marred by injury (wrist, back) and saw the fewest amount of plate appearances in a season since becoming an everyday player back in 2009. When he was on the field, Zobrist didn't perform the way he — or anybody else — was accustomed to, with a .232 batting average and .693 OPS. 

That all led to a WAR total of just 0.3 (FanGraphs) in 128 games in 2017. Entering play Thursday, FanGraphs already had Zobrist at 0.2 WAR in 2018, just four games into his season.

And that was before he crushed a 104.9 single in the first inning and a 105.2 mph single up the middle in the sixth of the Cubs' 8-0 victory Thursday evening in Milwaukee.. Zobrist also hit line drives his second and third times up, but right at Ryan Braun in left field and Jesus Aguilar at first base.

Ben Zobrist today:

104.9 mph 1B
87 mph lineout
94.7 mph lineout
105.2 mph 1B pic.twitter.com/uSeuEAdtiT

— Tony Andracki (@TonyAndracki23) April 6, 2018

What's even more impressive is how Zobrist's production has come in 2018, mostly hitting right handed and facing southpaws.

Due to that wrist injury last season, Zobrist was dreadful against lefties, hitting only .179 with a .553 OPS in 121 plate appearances.

There were times last summer where the veteran switch-hitter couldn't even take a swing against lefties and was forced to simply try to reach base via walk or bunt.

"It's been great," Zobrist said. "I don't want to talk about it too much because you want to stay healthy. I just think that any time you can do the work that you need to do to try to get back to the way you know you can swing the bat is great.

"I was able to do that this offseason and get back to those things that I know have made me successful. Yeah, right-handed, it was hampered last year, but that's in the past and I'm feeling healthy, so looking forward to doing a better job right-handed this year."

He's off to a great start in that department and his numbers would be even better if not for a spacious ballpark in Miami and hitting into some rough luck.

Zobrist has looked so good, his manager shifted around the entire Cubs lineup to get the veteran in the two-hole, bumping down Bryant, Rizzo and Willson Contreras while keeping Ian Happ in the leadoff spot Thursday.

Zobrist has also been working with new hitting coach Chili Davis on a specific approach and technique hitting right-handed, and it's paying off.

It's also where the Cubs need him the most, filling in for Jason Heyward or Kyle Schwarber against left-handed starting pitchers.

"I saw him have really good at-bats in Miami," Joe Maddon said. "I've seen him really swing the bat well from the right side in Tampa Bay. He's very capable of it."

Part of Zobrist's issues right-handed have stemmed from a high groundball rate where the Cubs feel he's just been rolling over the ball and hitting weak grounders to the left side. But the new adjustments have helped rewrite that script.

Early in spring training, it looked like it might be 2017 all over again for the 36-year-old when a back injury kept him out of action for the first three weeks of Cactus League play. But like any roller coaster, there are high points and low points and Zobrist is definitely on the upswing at the moment.

"I like what he looks like right now," Maddon said. "I think he's rested. Coming out of camp, he had to play catch-up based on the early injury and he wasn't feeling that great, so I think he's caught up right now."