Sunday provided a golden chance for the Cubs.

The Cubs could sweep the Blue Jays, kicking off a pivotal 18-game stretch in a perfect manner and erasing the setback they created earlier in the week when they were swept in Cleveland.

Instead, the Cubs’ bats were silenced by Bowden Francis, who tossed 7 scoreless innings of 3-hit ball in the Blue Jays’ 1-0 win at Wrigley Field.

“This was an opportunity, for sure,” manager Craig Counsell said after the loss. “We pitched well, but it takes all phases. And to put together the streaks you gotta deliver in all phases and we just weren’t able to deliver offensively today.

“Three one-run games came out on top of two of them, but obviously you look at today as a missed opportunity.”

Francis entered Sunday’s outing with a 4.92 ERA in 56.2 innings. He has been solid in August — he carries a 1.40 ERA and 0.47 WHIP this month in 19.1 innings after Sunday’s outing.

[WATCH: How Shota Imanaga is feeling through first MLB season]

The Cubs were no-hit through their first 10 batters, struck out 8 times and had one runner reach third base — Michael Busch after Nico Hoerner reached on a 2-out error by Toronto’s shortstop Ernie Clement.

On a day in which the winds were howling in from left to right, it seemed small ball would be the way to go to generate offense — until Joey Loperfido punched a 98.6-mph flyball off Shota Imanaga through the wind to right field that would give Toronto the only run of the game.

An inning later, Miguel Amaya hit a 100.5-mph fly ball to left field that was knocked down at the warning track for the final out of the frame.

“Just can be some tough elements here at times to play in,” Dansby Swanson said. “I think it was giving everybody fits, just even on regular fly balls today. But that’s how the game goes and you got to figure out a way to make something happen in a different fashion, and we just weren’t able to do that today.”

The loss doesn’t derail the Cubs season by any means — they will be at least 5 games out of a playoff spot by the end of the day, but it puts a damper on what would have been a golden chance for them to build a run.

This season, the Cubs have struggled to put together the type of winning streak that can jettison them up the standings — their longest winning streak this season is 5 games. A win Sunday, coupled with a 3-game series at home against the sub-.500 Tigers would have provided the Cubs the opening to do that.

They know where they sit in the standings, but the Cubs need more complete efforts — and fast — if they hope to pull off an improbable run into October. They’ll hope to do so after the off day against Detroit.

“We obviously would have loved to have been able to sweep them today,” Swanson said. “Starting out this homestand on a good note, played some good baseball throughout this series, just weren’t able to get a big hit today … Off day tomorrow, and then back out on Tuesday.”