CHICAGO — April isn’t over. The Cubs still have two more games to play before the calendar flips to May.

But Sunday was an unofficial endpoint on the Cubs’ daunting start to the 2025 season.

They played just six teams in their first 29 games: the 2024 World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers, Arizona Diamondbacks, Athletics, San Diego Padres, Texas Rangers and Philadelphia Phillies. That sextet went a combined 522-450 last season, and three of those teams reached the playoffs last season. Two of the three that didn’t — the Diamondbacks and Rangers — played each other in the 2023 World Series.

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Talk about a brutal schedule.

So, despite a 3-1 extra-innings loss Sunday that meant a series defeat to the Phillies, the Cubs’ 17-12 record is nothing to frown upon. But that doesn’t mean it’s time for them to kick their feet up, either.

“My initial reaction is, I still don’t want to overcook it, because in the big leagues you just never know,” Sunday starter Jameson Taillon said after the loss. “You can run into a team with a bad record that’s playing well, that can do damage and school you.”

He would know. The 33-year-old debuted with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2016 and pitched four seasons with them. Those Pirates teams weren’t the best — only once did they finish above .500 — but they got up for teams with October aspirations.

The Cubs hit the road to play those pesky Pirates in a three-game series, their first against an NL Central team, and then travel to Milwaukee for a three-game set against the defending division champion Brewers. And because of their nice start and who they’ve faced during it, the Cubs know they’ll receive their opponents’ best shots.

They just can’t take the last two April games and their May schedule for granted. Sure, only three of the eight teams they play during that span currently have a winning record (and two of them — the Colorado Rockies and the Chicago White Sox — are a combined 11-44), but it’s still the big leagues.

“I think the fact that we came out of the gate hot, played really good teams really well, is great,” Taillon said. “I also think we probably have a bit of a target on our back. We’re the Chicago Cubs, and teams like it when we come to town. They want to beat us. And I think there’s no time to step off the gas.”

The last two seasons are prime examples of that.

The Cubs were 14-13 at the end of April in 2023, then a 10-18 May swoon forced them to play catch-up the rest of the way. They crawled to 10 games over .500 at one point, but they ran out of steam down the stretch, finishing 83-79 and one game out of the NL playoff picture.

Last season, the Cubs were 17-9 at one point and 18-12 after April. They went 21-34 in the next two months, though, and that torpedoed their season.

The Cubs believe they’ve addressed some of the issues that caused those past bad stretches. Last season, the offense really struggled during the downswing — the Cubs had a .664 OPS in May and June, the seventh-worst mark in that span. Their 3.6 runs per game over those two months was the third worst in baseball. Wrigley Field played very pitcher-friendly and suppressed offense last season, too.

This season, the Cubs have the best offense in baseball in runs per game (5.93) and runs scored (172), and rank second in OPS (.784). They lead the majors in stolen bases (44), extra-base hits (103) and hits (265), too. They out-slugged big-bopping teams such as the Diamondbacks and Dodgers with the wind blowing out. When Wrigley suppressed offense, they showed they could win, too. 

“Anyone can score runs when the wind’s blowing out here,” Taillon said. “I was pretty excited about some of the things I saw when the wind was blowing in. … And then I thought I saw us bunt, steal bags, move runners, kind of like that old-school baseball stuff.

“It’s like, yeah, you don’t want to do that when the winds blowing out, but when it’s blowing in and you’re facing tough pitching, I think it’s cool that we found ways to manufacture runs and kind of play to the environment a little bit.”

The first 29 games showed the Cubs can compete with the best. Now they must avoid traps if they hope to match up with those April foes again in October.

“I think just position player-wise, it helps a lot that we just have a lot of guys who have been around,” Taillon said. “I think they’re going to do their work regardless if they’re facing a guy that’s just called up from Triple-A, or if they’re facing Aaron Nola. They prepare super consistently and do their work — they all have their routines.

“So, yeah, I think we’re fit to just play a complete season of baseball and just avoid the peaks and valleys, and stuff like that.”