The Chicago Cubs dropped their series over the weekend against the Houston Astros with a shutout defeat on Sunday that wound up narrowing their lead in the division to just two games.

Make no mistake, this has been a very special season in Chicago, and the Cubs still should be just a couple of strong trade deadline moves away from affirming their status as a contender in the loaded National League.

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With that being said though, this team’s track record against quality opponents over the last couple of months is a little bit of a concern.

Chicago faced a ridiculously tough schedule in the first part of the season and excelled against it, continuing that level of domination once the schedule started to soften up as well.

Baseball insider Bruce Levine provided some context as to just how much this team is struggling against quality opponents right now.

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It has not been a complete freefall by any means since then, but after the series loss to Houston, the Cubs have now gone since a late April two-game sweep over the Los Angeles Dodgers without taking a series from a team that had a record above .500 when the matchup occurred.

Thankfully, Chicago has been able to remain at the top of the standings due to the fact that they are absolutely lethal against teams below .500; however, when October rolls around, it’s not going to be poor competition they face.

With the likes of the Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, San Diego Padres, New York Mets and more all putting themselves in a spot to contend for an elusive National League pennant, the Cubs are inevitably going to face some extremely tough matchups to get where they want to be.

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In terms of getting to the playoffs, a track record of immense success against weak teams on your schedule and going roughly .500 against the strong teams is a recipe to win over 90 games, but eventually, Chicago is gonna have to rise to the occasion.

When the Cubs are at their best, they are capable of beating any opponent they face. Relying on bats to stay hot for a seven-game series against a World Series-quality team though, and simply hoping to play good enough to advance is not going to cut it.

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This is a team that has championship aspirations; however, if they want to come anywhere close to achieving them, rather than flaming out in October, they must raise their level of play when it’s a strong opponent in the other dugout.

For more Cubs news, head over to Cubs On SI.