It turned on a comeback. Or perhaps a game-saving catch in the ninth inning. Or a 17-run outburst. The Chicago Cubs were ready to subtract from their team this trade deadline, but a sudden win streak changed the trajectory of their season.

"There was a period where it looked like we were going to be sellers," Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said Tuesday evening. "We were seven games under .500, playing the Nationals and down 3-0, about to go eight under, and we ended up scoring 17 that night and sort of didn't look back for a while. That wasn't very long ago."