The Chicago Cubs will have an uphill battle ahead of them if they want to make the playoffs, but that won’t stop them from trying.

Instead of trading away their best players at the deadline, the front office actually signed a much-needed player to improve the third baseman position in Isaac Paredes. While he may be struggling right now, it signaled that the front office wasn’t ready to give up on this season entirely.

So far, the team has responded.

They have won 13 of their last 20 games and are suddenly 5.5 games out of the final wild card spot, despite an incredibly weak schedule to close out September.

When a team makes even a small margin for error, it can’t afford to lose games it should win. And after the second inning on Friday against the Miami Marlins, it looked like this could be one of those games when the Cubs were trailing 1-0.

Then Chicago’s young star Pete Crow-Armstrong caused a sensation in the stadium as the first batter at the beginning of the third inning when he scored an inside-the-park home run to tie the game at 1:1.

The Cubs scored two more runs in the period to build a lead that helped them survive a late push by the Marlins and ultimately win 6-3.

While Crow-Armstrong’s home run was important to the outcome of the game, the speed with which he ran the bases also earned him a place in the record books.

Chicago knew he was fast, but this was an impressive display of speed.

In addition to Crow-Armstrong’s exciting play, there were also some signs that the former top talent is slowly starting to get his skills at the batting edge under control.

In 19 games in August, he posted a batting average of .288/.333/.559 with three home runs, eight extra-base hits and eight RBIs.

Although the early part of his MLB career might suggest otherwise, the 22-year-old has been successful at every level he’s played at, so it was only a matter of time before that would become a reality on “The Show.”

He still needs to do that for a long time, but if he can add a reliable offensive aspect to his already excellent defensive game, he will be one of the best outfielders in the MLB for a long time.