A sweep of the Colorado Rockies sends the Chicago Cubs into the final week of the regular season in playoff position with six games to go.

The Chicago White Sox need to win three of their final six games to avoid 100 losses. They finish the season at home with three against the Arizona Diamondbacks and three against the San Diego Padres. A schedule change means the Diamondbacks series will begin Tuesday and conclude Thursday, with Monday an off day.

[ [Don’t miss] Column: Another Chicago Cubs home season ends at Wrigley Field, where traditions still matter ]

Every Monday throughout the regular season, Tribune baseball writers will provide an update on what happened — and what’s ahead for the Cubs and Sox.

The life of a bench player tends to bring limited playing time and sometimes being the odd man out when a roster spot is needed.

Miles Mastrobuoni knew he wouldn’t be getting many at-bats after the Cubs recalled him Aug. 19. He went a month before starting a game and in that span recorded four plate appearances, at one point going 11 days between entering in any role. But with Jeimer Candelario (low back strain) and Nick Madrigal (right hamstring strain) both on the injured list, the Cubs’ third-base options have thinned, leading to more opportunities for Mastrobuoni.

He’s started four of the Cubs’ last five games, going 8-for-15 with two doubles, two stolen bases and five runs scored to accompany solid defense at third.

“Just be yourself, understand what you do well, and just do that, don’t try and be somebody you’re not,” Mastrobuoni said Saturday. “Maybe that kind of crept in a little early, trying to make a name for myself and everything like that. And I learned from that and was able to let the shoulders sink down and take a weight off my chest and just be me.”

When the Cubs acquired Mastrobuoni from the Tampa Bay Rays in November, this is the role they envisioned him fitting into, and as he has become more comfortable the 27-year-old infielder has thrived.

“My role there was coming off the bench and do what I can and now things have changed,” Mastrobuoni said. “So I try and do the same thing, don’t let the moment get too big. And even if you look from the outside and it can be a little big, just try to slow the game down.”

Boston Red Sox designated hitter Justin Turner hit a line drive to left field in the fourth inning Saturday at Fenway Park.

The ball skipped off the Green Monster and White Sox left fielder Andrew Benintendi played it perfectly. He made an on-target throw to second base to get Turner out.

Benintendi knows left field at Fenway Park well, as he spent the first five years of his career with the Red Sox.

“A lot of good memories here,” Benintendi said before the series began in Boston. “It’s always fun to come back to this stadium.”

After making his debut in 2016, Benintendi played at least 138 games for the Red Sox from 2017-19. He appeared in 148 games for the World Series championship team in 2018.

Benintendi has played a team-leading 147 games during his first season with the White Sox.

“There’s only so many things you can control in this game,” Benintendi said. “I think being prepared and getting your body right to play a game, whether you feel 100% or you don’t, it’s just willing to get out there and play the game every single day.

“Something I feel like I’ve always tried to do. There are injuries that you can’t avoid. There are broken bones and things like that I’ve experienced and you can’t really do anything about. But trying to be out there every day and at least being available every single day.”

He entered Sunday with a team-leading .328 on-base percentage. Overall, Benintendi is slashing .263/.328/.360 with five home runs and 45 RBIs.

If the Cubs are going to survive this next week and get into the postseason, the bullpen will need to hold it together as the injury-hampered group continues to get tested. Mark Leiter Jr. hasn’t pitched since Wednesday and wasn’t used Sunday. Instead, left-hander Drew Smyly was warming in the eighth inning of Sunday’s 4-3 win if lefty Nolan Jones came up, but José Cuas got out of it.

Asked if it was safe to assume Leiter is banged up as to why he hasn’t pitched the last few days, manager David Ross pointed to the Rockies’ right-handed lineup. However, the Rockies had left-handed pinch-hit options, including Ryan McMahon, who pinch hit in the ninth against Julian Merryweather.

“I don’t know what you want to assume, but you can write whatever,” Ross said of Leiter’s availability.

Ross also didn’t provide any specifics Sunday of when Adbert Alzolay could return. He is eligible to come off the 15-day injured list before the Cubs’ series opener Tuesday against the Braves. The Cubs arrived in Atlanta on Sunday night and have Monday as the final day to rest their relief arms on a day off before the end of the regular season.

• Monday: off
• Tuesday: at Braves, 6:20 p.m. Marquee
• Wednesday: at Braves, 6:20 p.m. Marquee
• Thursday: at Braves, 6:20 p.m. Marquee
• Friday: at Brewers, 7:10 p.m. Marquee
• Saturday: at Brewers, 6:10 p.m. Marquee
• Sunday: at Brewers, 2:10 p.m. Marquee

Will Luis Robert Jr. reach 40 home runs? The center fielder has 38 on the season, but exited Sunday’s game with left knee soreness and will be examined further Monday in Chicago.

Will the White Sox avoid 100 losses? They have 96.

Those are a couple of numbers to monitor in the final week of the season.

As the finish line nears, manager Pedro Grifol said “I just want them to play hard, to compete and play hard”

“That’s all I ask, just play hard to the last out of the season,” Grifol said before Sunday’s game. “Don’t take this opportunity for granted. You’re in a major-league uniform, playing in a major-league stadium, people who pay to come see you play and we owe the fans and everybody a strong effort to the very last out.”

• Monday: off
• Tuesday: vs. Diamondbacks, 6:40 p.m., NBCSCH
• Wednesday: vs. Diamondbacks, 1:10 p.m., NBCSCH
• Thursday: vs. Diamondbacks, 1:10 p.m., NBCSCH
• Friday: vs. Padres, 6:40 p.m., NBCSCH
• Saturday: vs. Padres, 6:10 p.m., NBCSCH
• Sunday: vs. Padres, 2:10 p.m., NBCSCH

Sept. 27, 1930: Hack Wilson hit two home runs for the Cubs, giving him an NL-record 56 for the season.

Sept. 27, 1935: Cubs clinch the NL pennant and won their 21st consecutive game with a doubleheader sweep of the Cardinals.

The Cubs won the pennant with the opening-game victory. They won 100 games that season before losing in the World Series to the Tigers.

Sept. 27, 1993: White Sox clinch the AL West with a 4-2 win at Comiskey Park.

The victory was the 90th of the season and sent the Sox into the AL playoffs against the defending World Champion Toronto Blue Jays, who clinched the East title against Milwaukee about an hour after the Sox wrapped up the West.

As soon as Ellis Burks hauled in a lazy fly ball from Seattle Mariners catcher Dave Valle for the final out, the sellout crowd of 42,116 broke into a goose-flesh ovation that lasted 20 minutes.

Fireworks spewed from the pinwheel in the center-field scoreboard, but they went almost unheeded. The sore-throated roar of the crowd and the pounding of hearts drowned out everything.

Everyone from bullpen catcher Jose Antiqua to General Manager Ron Schueler partied into the wee hours. They drenched one another in beer and warm champagne. They passed around cigars. They lathered each other with shaving cream.

“You write a script and Bo’s there to fill it out,” said Schueler of Bo Jackson, putting into words what everyone knew and felt.

Jackson, the only man ever to play in the major leagues on a plastic hip, crushed a 3-0 pitch almost as high as it went far and just cleared the left-field fence to set off a thunderous celebration that lasted long into the night. His three-run home run was a magical moment that almost seemed predestined. He never should have played after having a hip replacement last winter. But not only did he make the team, he made believers of fans everywhere when he homered in his first at-bat of the season on April 9.

Sept. 28, 1920: 8 White Sox players indicted on charges of throwing 1919 World Series.

The 1919 White Sox — considered by some baseball historians as one of the greatest teams ever to take the field — were heavy favorites to beat the Reds in the World Series.

But in the best-of-nine series (Major League Baseball decided to expand from the best-of-four format due to postwar demand), the Reds dominated. There had been rumors and reports that the fix was in, and indeed the Sox’s performance was suspect.

A year later, eight White Sox players were charged with throwing the World Series. In 1921, all were acquitted by a jury that deliberated just 2 hours, 47 minutes.

A day after their acquittal, however, baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis ruled the players allegedly involved — Joe Jackson, Eddie Cicotte, Oscar “Happy” Felsch, Arnold “Chick” Gandil, Fred McMullin, Charles “Swede” Risberg, George “Buck” Weaver and Claude “Lefty” Williams — would be banned for life from organized baseball.

Sept. 28, 1938: Gabby Hartnett’s two-out, two-strike, last-of-the-ninth home run — the “homer in the Gloamin’” — beats darkness and first-place Pittsburgh Pirates 6-5.

Three days later Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals for their 10th win in a row, clinching the pennant.

Sept. 28, 2003: Ron Santo’s No. 10 jersey is retired by the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

“Now I really don’t care if I get into the Hall of Fame anymore,” the emotional former third baseman and current broadcaster said. “This is my Hall of Fame. I really mean it. I can’t explain it, but this is the ultimate.”

The announcement came as a complete surprise to Santo, who was under the impression he’d have to make it to Cooperstown before receiving such an honor. His 342 career home runs rank fourth among major-league third basemen, and Santo was a nine-time National League All-Star and five-time Gold Glove Award winner.

“It seems like I’m more popular now than I was as a player,” Santo said. “Maybe all you have to do is lose a couple legs and be a Cub fan. That’s what it’s all about in Chicago.”

He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2012 — almost two years after his death.

Sept. 29, 1945: Cubs win the National League pennant for the first time since 1938.

It was the Cubs’ 16th league title, the fifth time in 17 years and the third time under Charley Grimm’s leadership.

The Tribune wrote of that day: “All morning it appeared the weather man might force the Cubs to back into the pennant. There was a constant downpour till an hour before game time, and if it had been impossible to play, the Cubs would have clinched the bunting by something akin to default.

The lads didn’t want to triumph in any such fashion and no one was more pleased than they when the rain ceased and it was announced that every effort would be made to play at least one game, even if the lights had to be turned on late tonight. Once started, however, the first contest went straight thru, tho there was a drizzle during the early innings.”

Sept. 30, 1990: Last White Sox game played at Comiskey Park.

A crowd of 42,849 fans turned out on a sunny, autumn afternoon to say farewell to what had been proclaimed the “the Baseball Palace of the World” when it opened July 1, 1910.

Many fans were teary-eyed, realizing that the place where they had spent so many happy times would soon be turned into a parking lot for the new Comiskey Park, which was rising just to the south at 35th Street and Shields Avenue.

“Years from now,” the Chicago White Sox ads had said all season, “you’ll say you were there.” On this day, one of the many banners hanging from the upper-deck railings read, “Years from now, you’ll park here.”

Besides being the home of the White Sox, the venerable ballpark with the exploding scoreboard had been the site of several heavyweight title fights, the home field for the NFL’s Chicago Cardinals, the stadium for the Negro League All-Star Games and where the Beatles performed two concerts.

Former Sox Vice President Charles Comiskey, grandson of the man for whom the park was named, was on hand for the final game — a 2-1 win over the Seattle Mariners. Mayor Richard M. Daley threw out the first pitch. Former Sox great Minnie Miñoso brought the lineup card out to the umpires.

When it was over, the crowd had joined organist Nancy Faust for a final rendition of “Na-Na Hey-Hey Goodbye.”

Sept. 30, 2008: White Sox win tiebreaker vs. Twins in Blackout Game.

The White Sox defended their home turf in a playoff-type atmosphere to win the American League Central title Tuesday night with a 1-0 victory over rival Minnesota in a pulsating tiebreaker.

“It’s gratifying in so many ways,” general manager Ken Williams said in a champagne-soaked clubhouse. “I’m so proud of the way Gavin Floyd and John Danks responded to the pressure, the situation. It’s what the scouts saw in them, what I saw in them, what the coaches saw, and they delivered.”

Danks had a 7.91 ERA against the Twins in four regular-season starts but redeemed himself in heroic fashion. He pitched eight innings of two-hit ball on three days’ rest.

Oct. 1, 1932: Babe Ruth’s “called shot” at Wrigley Field.

In the fifth inning, Ruth at the plate faced the Cubs’ Charlie Root, with two strikes on him. Ruth, jawing with the Cubs dugout, held out two fingers, and then sent the next pitch soaring toward Lake Michigan.

The ball whizzed just to the right of what now would be the iconic scoreboard in center field. The “Ruthian” blow, if ever there was one, traveled nearly 500 feet.

Ruth either pointed to the Wrigley Field bleachers or at Cubs taunting him from the dugout before hitting the home run that went down in history as Ruth’s called shot during Game 3 of the World Series — which ends in a Yankees sweep.

“You could feel the energy even pregame. I was walking out to the bullpen 45 minutes before first pitch and I mean, the left field bleachers were basically full 45 minutes before first pitch. … This place is unbelievable because it just resonates with everybody how special the fans are here, how special the environment is so just to be able to be here and pitch in the comfort of home was awesome.” — Cubs starter Jordan Wicks on getting to start the last regular-season game at Wrigley Field.