CHICAGO (WSCR) This Cubs are in the middle of a stretch that could either officially end any small hope of the team being competitive this season, or could start stir up some optimism among their restless fans.

Chicago started this two-series stretch taking three out of four games from the Milwaukee Brewers.

“That series shows what type of team that we have,” outfielder Marlon Byrd said on the Mully and Hanley Show. “I mean, we beat a team that was in first place. We beat a Brewers team that was playing well, and we beat some very good pitchers.”

Zack Greinke, Yovani Gallardo and Randy Wolf, the starting pitchers for the Brewers in their three losses to the Cubs, have combined for 18 wins and only Greinke has an ERA over 4.00.

LISTEN: Marlon Byrd On The Danny Mac Show

The Cubs haven’t won more than two games in a row all season long, and have only strung together back-to-back wins seven times.

“You have to win back-to-back series,” Byrd said. “You can’t just go in and win one series and be complacent. We’re not in a spot where we can do that. We’re 10 games back and we have to keep chipping away. Slowly, piece-by-piece, by the All-Star break we need to be close to, you know, five games out.”

But the Cubs’ schedule through this weekend doesn’t get any easier, as the Yankees make only their second trip to Wrigley Field since the 1938 World Series.

“Coming into this series it doesn’t get any easier,” Byrd said. “We have the Yankees, Freddy Garcia, CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, and we have these boys that are swinging the bat: [Curtis] Granderson, Mark Teixeira, I mean every single one of them, Robinson Cano. And you cannot get complacent and go: ‘Oh look we won a series, we played well, we’re a good team.’ You have to show it on the field, again.”