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Cubs still struggling, lose to Giants 6-4

The Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants both entered Monday with their own sets of problems after a memorable division series between them last year.

The Cubs have struggled in the early going to find something even close to their world-championship form of 2016.

The Giants have dug a huge hole for themselves in the National League West, but they've shown signs of climbing out of that hole recently.

If you were given the choice that only one of these teams will make it back to the postseason this year, which one would you take?

The Giants looked to be the readier of the two teams early Monday night at Wrigley Field as they jumped on Cubs starter John Lackey on the way to a 6-4 victory. The Cubs staged a furious rally late, with Javier Baez and Ben Zobrist each hitting 2-run homers in the eighth inning to cut into a 6-0 deficit.

"We have to look at is as we have dug ourselves a little hole here and created a challenge," said Giants manager Bruce Bochy, maybe the best in the business at what he does. "But we've also put ourselves in a great situation for a great story. If you look at where we're at now, we're in a better position than we were 10 days ago. These guys are getting healthier. They're feeling better about themselves.

"Nothing surprises me with what they can do with their backs against the wall. You never say your back's against the wall when you're in May, but we've dug ourselves a pretty good hole, but we're doing a pretty good job of digging our way out. It's not going to happen in a day or two."

The Giants under Bochy won World Series titles in 2010, 2012 and 2014. And they faced adversity.

"You look back to 2010, and we were 6 or 7 games back in August," he said. We're in a better situation now than we were then."

It's fun to look back to last October, when the Cubs beat the Giants in four games to win the NLDS. They rallied in Game 4 at San Francisco, scoring 4 runs in the ninth inning to win 6-5.

If the Cubs had lost, they would have come home to play Game 5, facing Johnny Cueto, with the possibility of Madison Bumgarner coming out of the bullpen.

"I'm telling you, man, Game 4 pretty much won the World Series, I thought, versus San Francisco," said Cubs manager Joe Maddon. "I did not want to see Mr. Cueto pitching back here again. I'll get to see him tomorrow, but that's OK. The whole Game 4 in San Francisco, I did focus on that a lot, trying to understand Game 5 back at home, how this is going to play out and do whatever we possibly can to win that game there, that night in San Francisco.

"That was the game for me. Out of the entire postseason, to have to play the Giants who were battle tested, Game 5 back here with him pitching, I did not like that thought at all. I thought pretty much the postseason was hinged on that one game at San Francisco."

• Follow Bruce's Cubs and baseball reports on Twitter @BruceMiles2112.

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