​The Chicago Cubs entered Friday’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates with a four-game skid while losing their once-solid grip on a National League wild-card spot.The natives were getting restless and angst-ridden, watching a struggling Cubs team that a few weeks ago seemed like a lock for the No. 4 seed in the NL and home-field advantage in the wild-card round.But manager Craig Counsell was unusually chipper Friday morning, as opposed to his postgame demeanor a few days ago in Milwaukee, where he sounded like he wanted to throw someone in a wood chipper.“This is the good time of the year,” Counsell told reporters Friday. “Now, what’s good about it?”Photos: Chicago Cubs 12, Pittsburgh Pirates 2I honestly wasn’t ready for a pop quiz on a Friday morning.Counsell didn’t give us time to answer, which was just as well since my guess was “the Bears are starting up again.”“It’s that it’s just a little more emotional,” he continued, answering his own question. “During those games in May and June, there are some emotional games, but there is a cruise-control aspect that has to be in a major-league season, right? Because it’s so many games. I don’t want that phrase to be misinterpreted, but you understand.”Cruise control? Deleted. Please continue.“Now we’re at the time of the year where the games matter more, so it’s more emotional,” Counsell said. “And that’s the good part about it. So we feel a little better when we win and we get hurt a little more when we lose. That’s the best part. That’s why this job is great.”The Cubs went on to trounce the Pirates 12-2 to end their losing streak and start their six-game homestand on an up note.Managing the Cubs is indeed a great job when you’re winning, especially if you’re being paid $8 million a year.  When you’re losing … not so much.This year has seen the Cubs do both, often in long stretches of either winning a lot or losing a lot. Cubs fans have alternated between being ecstatic and miserable, sometimes in the same inning.It’s nothing new. I’ve covered many crazy Cubs seasons since 1987, and legendary managers from Don Zimmer to Dusty Baker to Lou Piniella to Joe Maddon to Counsell.But the extremes in fan reactions seem more pronounced in 2026 than any other year I can remember, including the early 2000s.“Let’s not gloom-and-doom this thing,” Piniella once pleaded with the media after a Game 1 playoff loss against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2007 NL Division Series.The Cubs were promptly swept, so doom won out. Ditto in ’08, when they won 97 games and were swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS. Piniella lasted 3½ years here and said managing in Chicago was different than anywhere else on the planet.“One thing I’ve learned about Chicago is that you’re really up or you’re really down,” he said.Guilty as charged. A couple of weeks ago many Cubs fans wanted Shota Imanaga out of the rotation. Since then he has gotten a