Letdowns no concern for Chicago Cubs
The term "trap game" usually isn't used in baseball as it is in football.
With games almost every day, baseball players don't have much time to think about a lesser opponent.
That said, the Chicago Cubs entered Monday coming off a four-game sweep of the Washington Nationals, including an emotional 4-3 victory in 13 innings Sunday.
It was on to a three-game series against the San Diego Padres, the last-place team in the National League West.
Monday night's game was postponed because of rain. It will be made up as part of a day-night doubleheader Wednesday. The first game starts at 12:05 p.m. The second game begins at 7:05 p.m.
Jon Lester will pitch Tuesday night's game for the Cubs. He was Monday's scheduled starter. In the doubleheader, Kyle Hendricks will pitch Game 1 with John Lackey going in Game 2.
"I think we're just going to try to sleepwalk through this one; we're not going to come ready to play today," joked veteran catcher David Ross. "I've said this a billion times already this year: These guys come every day prepared and ready to play.
"For a young group, we're going to come out and try beat the team that's on the field today. All the guys are going to go out there and play their hardest. Win or lose we'll come back and try to do the same thing the next day."
Just call it the effect of manager Joe Maddon's 30-minute rule. After victories, the Cubs celebrate hard for 30 minutes. After losses, they're down for 30 minutes.
Win or lose, once the 30 minutes are up, they move on.
It's gotten so ingrained that Maddon hasn't even talked about the 30-minute rule much this year.
"Me, personally, I don't try to hang on to things too long unless it's a personal failure of mine where I messed up," Ross said. "It's good for the young guys to hear that (the 30-minute rule). I think I learned that over experience, where if you play things too long and let them carry over, this game will eat you up.
"It's such a long season and so many games, we're going to have bad days, and we're going to have good days. The key is to stay consistent with your approach and your plan.
"Joe talks a lot about 'the process.' As long as we come in every day and the process is the same about how we go about our business, that's the key. However you deal with a loss or a victory is each individual's, but, yeah, that's a great philosophy."
In Sunday's game, Maddon used every player on his four-man bench and had starting pitcher Jason Hammel pinch hit. Relief pitcher Trevor Cahill started a game-tying rally in the seventh inning with a hit and he scored a run.
"It's probably easier sometimes to put down a win than it is to put down a loss," Maddon said Monday. "But you've got to keep moving. There are too many games to be played. I think our guys are really good at that.
"The thing that really impressed me a lot (Sunday) was, fourth game of a series, we had already won the first three against a really good team and had a really good week. There are a lot of times teams just don't show up 100 percent, and our guys were there the entire game, I'm telling you.
"It was really impressive to watch how our guys hung in there."