ARLINGTON, Texas — Say this for the Cubs: When it’s time for a 10-game winning streak to end, subtlety is not invited to attend.
The Cubs, the first big-league team in 71 years to have two 10-game winning streaks in the first 40 games of a season since Jackie Robinson’s 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers, were soundly beaten, 6-0, by the Texas Rangers, before a crowd of 35,807 here Saturday night.
The one-sided defeat put a muzzle on the very vocal minority of Cubs fans who staged an effective takeover of Globe Life Field the night before.
“It often felt more like Wrigley except for, you know, the roof and all,’’ wrote Evan Grant in the Dallas Morning News.
The loss Saturday was reminiscent of the 12-4 smackdown the Cubs received from the Dodgers when their first 10-game winning streak ended in L.A. on April 25.
Cubs starter Edwin Cabrera gave up five runs in five innings, including leadoff home runs in the second (Josh Jung on an 0-and-2 count) and fifth (Justin Foscue, the first of his big-league career). Cabrera put himself in favorable position by throwing first-pitch strikes to 17 of the 21 batters he faced, striking out six, but too many times, the putaway pitch was lacking.
“(The Rangers) did a really good job of extending at-bats,’’ Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “So kind of credit to them what they did tonight.’’
The Cubs, meanwhile, had abundant chances against Rangers starter Jack (son of Al) Leiter, but went 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position through the first four innings and ultimately 0 for 13, managing just one hit after Dansby Swanson’s two-out double in the fourth.
“They beat us tonight, and that’s the way it goes,’’ Counsell said. Tomorrow, you try to come and win a series.’’
From the outside, some might look at the red-hot Cubs and imagine that new third baseman Alex Bregman was off to the kind of start he had in Boston last season. They would be wrong.
Through 40 games last season, Bregman posted a slash line of .319/.392/.581/.974, with 9 home runs, 15 doubles, 31 RBI and 29 runs for the Red Sox. He has not come close to replicating those numbers so far with the Cubs.
In 40 games with the Cubs, Bregman has posted a very modest slash line of .233/.328/.333/.661, with 3 home runs, 5 doubles, a triple, and 13 RBIs. He did not hit his first home run until his 22nd game in a Cubs uniform, and was quiet at the plate during the team’s latest 10-game winning streak: He posted a slash line of .222/.349/.278/.627, his only extra-base hits two doubles, and with 3 RBIs. He drew seven walks.
Saturday night, Bregman went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts, reaching on an error and lining out in his other two at-bats.
“…Alex is probably off to a slower start by his standards,’’ Counsell said at the outset of the weekend. “[That] makes me happy in a weird way, that we’ve got some good Alex Bregman coming here, but he’s definitely impacted [this team].’’
Bregman was sitting at his locker along with Nico Hoerner in a sparsely populated postgame clubhouse, both living up to their reputations for accountability. He noted that, yes, he had the best start of his career in Boston, but can point to a number of other slow starts as well.
“Yeah, I feel like I’ve started quick, maybe two years,’’ Bregman said. “So, just continue to work at it. Continue to grind away and be confident in the fact that it’s going to happen. Keep working, keep after it, and the end of the year, be right where we want.’’