I’ve written this a number of times here and I believe it, and I would like you to believe it, and perhaps the Cubs players are beginning to believe it.

This is a good Cubs team and I think they can generate offense like this every day and perhaps run off a winning streak and get back into the wild-card race.

They sure showed it in this 8-2 win over the Twins  and taking the series from a pretty good Minnesota team.

Granted, they caught a break when Twins starter Joe Ryan had to leave the game with what was later termed “tricep tightness.” You never want to see anyone injured, but this allowed the Cubs to pile on the Twins bullpen for a whole bunch of runs.

Let’s begin at the beginning. Javier Assad, once again, got himself in trouble with a first-inning walk to Trevor Larnach with one out. One out later, Matt Wallner doubled in Larnach and the Twins had a 1-0 lead.

It took just two Cubs hitters to tie the game. Michael Busch hit a towering home run, his 16th [VIDEO].

Busch has made a specialty of those high-apex homers. Look how high that one was! [VIDEO]

And it would have gone farther if not for a 14 mile per hour wind blowing in off Lake Michigan on what was otherwise one of the best weather days of the entire summer at Wrigley Field.

The Twins put another run on the board off Assad in the second, and Assad labored through the first two innings, throwing 47 pitches to record six outs. He had some help from his defense — here, a nice catch by Happ [VIDEO].

Assad was a bit better in the third, and that’s when Ryan was injured after throwing three pitches to Pete Crow-Armstrong.

Here’s what happened to Ryan [VIDEO].

Trevor Richards relieved Ryan and that’s when the fun started. PCA singled and stole second. Christian Bethancourt worked a walk and was forced at second by Happ, with PCA taking third. Happ then stole second, and Busch walked to load the bases.

That brought up Seiya Suzuki [VIDEO].

That tied the game at 2, and the other runners moved up a base. That allowed Happ to giv the Cubs a 3-2 lead on this sac fly by Isaac Paredes [VIDEO].

Busch moved up to third on that fly ball, and scored on this wild pitch [VIDEO].

Two more walks, to Mike Tauchman and Nico Hoerner, re-loaded the bases, but Dansby Swanson hit into a force play to end the inning. Still, a productive inning that plated three runs for the Cubs on only one hit (PCA’s leadoff single).

Assad finished the fourth inning scoreless, but was removed having thrown 75 pitches. That’s way too many for four innings. He’s going to have to work on command and control some more.

The Cubs extended their lead in the bottom of the fourth. With one out, Bethancourt doubled, and Happ followed with his 18th home run [VIDEO].

With that homer, Happ ties the departed Christopher Morel for the team lead. It gave the Cubs a 6-2 advantage.

The Cubs bullpen did a fine job in this one, combining for five scoreless innings, with three hits and no walks allowed, with six strikeouts. Credit to Drew Smyly (one inning), Jorge López (two), Porter Hodge (one) and Julian Merryweather (one).

The Cubs put two more on the board in the eighth. Tauchman led off with a single, stole second and went to third on an infield out.

Swanson singled in Tauchman [VIDEO].

Swanson then stole second, the Cubs’ fourth steal of the game. After PCA struck out, Bethancourt doubled Swanson in [VIDEO].

That was Bethancourt’s second double of the game. He’s now batting .429/.500/.857 (6-for-14) as a Cub with three doubles, a home run and five RBI in five games. Small sample size, but he’s also thrown out both runners who have tried to steal against him. He’s certainly no long-term solution at catcher, but ride this hot hand as long as you can, Craig Counsell.

Here’s the final out of the game, a ground ball to second [VIDEO].

That was a satisfying win, series and homestand. The Cubs, as I noted above, won a series from a very good team that might well win the AL Central. They took five of seven in a homestand against two pretty good teams. Now all they have to do is keep this winning going, and I do think they can, and so… at least for today…

Here are Craig Counsell’s postgame comments [VIDEO].

Counsell is right — up and down the lineup, all the guys are contributing, and I think this can continue.

A note on this series win from BCB’s JohnW53:

The Cubs now are 9-10 after splitting the first two games of three-game series. They had started the season 5-3, then gone 4-7 before winning the last two, at Kansas City on July 28 and today. They had won back-to-back rubber games only once before, April 14 at Seattle and April 17 at Arizona.

The Cubs have Thursday off and then head to the South Side to face the White Sox in a two-game set. You all know about the Sox’ 21-game losing streak that they finally ended Tuesday, only to lose again Wednesday afternoon. Here’s hoping the Cubs extend the Sox’ losing. Jameson Taillon will start the series opener against the Sox, and Sox ace Garrett Crochet will start for them. Game time Friday is 7:10 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network (and NBC Sports Chicago with the Sox announcers).