As the Cubs figure out the innings puzzle for the last five weeks of the regular season, right-hander Javier Assad is expected to play an important role. But the team optioned him Saturday to Triple-A Iowa after his best start of the season and recalled left-hander Jordan Wicks.

A successful playoff run requires Crow-Armstrong and Tucker to snap out of funks. Friday could've been the start of that.

So you can imagine how happy he was — along with the rest of us — when his first home run since July 1 went into the seats in the first inning at Angel Stadium Friday evening. Pete Crow-Armstrong bookended that homer with one of his own in the ninth inning off Kenley Jansen and the Cubs defeated the Angels 3-2 in the first game of a nine-game road trip.

After being benched against the Brewers, Tucker has rediscovered his ability to hunt certain pitches and launch those balls into the seats.

Saturday went quite well. In the Cubs’ 12-1 win against the Angels, he recorded his first multi-homer game as a Cub and the eighth of his career. Sports Newsletter All of the Chicago sports stories making news as they break, plus headlines every morning.

Despite some struggles in the second half of the season, the Chicago Cubs finally had an impressive series against the Milwaukee Brewers.  In what ended up feel