Column: Soft part of Chicago Cubs schedule finally has arrived. Can they take advantage?

The Chicago Cubs have been waiting for a more relaxing stretch of the schedule, a chance to beat up on the rebuilds after playing a steady diet of contenders over the first quarter of the season.

That time finally has arrived, and now it’s up to the Cubs to take advantage of it.

Monday’s 5-2 win over the Miami Marlins was a good way to start. Dansby Swanson and Seiya Suzuki hit two-run home runs in a five-run fifth, and Colin Rea pitched into the seventh on a cool, crisp night at Wrigley Field.

This was the start of a 21-game stretch the Cubs should dominate, even with Justin Steele out for the season and Shota Imanaga’s return from a hamstring strain unknown. They’ve already played eight series against the five best teams in the National League — the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants and Philadelphia Phillies — and held their own for the most part.

But the St. Louis Cardinals suddenly have begun to show signs of life, creeping within a game of the Cubs, who haven’t had a prolonged hot streak yet.

Swanson, who has lifted his average from .181 to .248 the last couple of weeks, appears to have reverted to his default setting. He helped lift the offense Monday before a crowd of 32,271 and credited his streak to the Red Bull drink that Nicky Lopez started giving him.

“It’s literally one small sip from Nicky,” he said. “That’s the key, I’m telling you.”

As Swanson was speaking, he glanced up at the clubhouse TV.

“There’s a Red Bull commercial on right now, by the way,” he said in another unpaid endorsement.

The Cubs were mostly happy to escape New York, where they could’ve emerged with a series win Sunday only to see the bullpen falter in a 6-2 loss to the Mets.

This upcoming stretch of softer-than-softies started with the Marlins, who have the worst pitching in the NL and are in another in an unending series of rebuilds. The Cubs also will miss Miami’s best starter, Sandy Alcantara, who very well could wind up in a Cubs uniform at the trade deadline if President Jed Hoyer can come up with the right package of prospects.

Next up is the White Sox. Nothing more needs to be said.

It’s always an intense series between Chicago’s two major-league teams, and after the Sox organization trolled the Cubs last weekend over the Cubs’ premature ownership of Pope Leo XIV’s fandom, nothing less than a sweep of the American League’s worst team would suffice for Cubs fans.

Of course, you can throw away the records whenever these teams meet and the pope is involved. Cubs manager Craig Counsell is 4-0 against the Sox since coming to Chicago and would like to keep his perfect record intact.

Then it’s down to Miami, where the Cubs return to the scene of Pete Crow-Armstrong’s inside-the-park home run last August. The Marlins are 4-13 over their last 17 games and just lost two of three to the Sox during their weeklong residency in Chicago. It’s not a franchise on the rise, but at least they conned their city and state into building them a new stadium no one goes to.