The term was coined by Rick Pitino when he was coaching the Celtics during a trying time and had his fill of public criticism.
“These sports talk shows,’’ he said, “are fueled by the fellowship of the miserable.’’
There will be a similar gathering at Wrigley Field this weekend, but it has nothing to do with “Mully and Haugh,” “Spiegel and Holmes” or “Waddle and Silvy.”
It has everything to do with the Cubs and Astros, two teams who come into this series sharing similar tales of woe.
“We’re in a funk right now, and it’s up to us to change it,’’ Cubs manager Craig Counsell said.
“I think right now we’re struggling a little bit,’’ Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez told reporters.
The Cubs have lost nine of their last 11 games since April 9 to fall out of the first-place perch they had been holding since the first day of the month. They enter the weekend in second place, 1 1/2 games behind the Brewers, who took three straight from them this week.
The Astros are 4-8 since the same date and are now 11 games under .500, in fourth place in the AL West.
The Cubs have scored three runs or fewer in nine games in this stretch and have been outscored 59-31. They’re batting a collective .182 and have been outhomered 20-7.
The Astros are batting .186 over the same stretch and are averaging just 1.9 runs a game while being outscored 52-23.
According to the app Wrigley Winds, the wind will be blowing in for all three games, news that offers no relief to these slumping teams.
Alex Bregman, who is batting .286 in this stretch, is the only Cubs player in double digits in hits with 12. Pete Crow-Armstrong and Ian Happ both have four hits in their last 37 at-bats. Dansby Swanson is 5-for-34. Moises Ballesteros is 1-for-18. Matt Shaw, in limited play, is hitless in 14 at-bats.
On the pitching side, in their last two full turns through the rotation, Shota Imanaga is the only Cubs starter with an outing longer than five innings. He went seven innings, allowing two runs, in a 4-1 loss to the Braves, then went just 4 1/3 innings Monday night against the Brewers, allowing eight runs in a 9-3 loss.
On Wednesday night, Edward Cabrera was lifted after throwing one pitch in the fourth inning because of a blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand, an issue that had previously plagued him in Miami.
The Cubs should know by Friday whether he can make his next start. If he can, Counsell might elect to give Imanaga a sixth day of rest and slot Ben Brown, who would be working on regular rest, on Sunday. Jameson Taillon, who gave up five home runs to the White Sox in five innings in his last start, is scheduled to face the Astros on Friday, with Colin Rea pitching Saturday.
The Astros, who are already missing Cy Young Award finalist Hunter Brown and Cristian Javier to shoulder strains, lost another member of their rotation this week when they put Lance McCullers on the injured list with shoulder inflammation. Right-hander Spencer Arrighetti, who was the team’s rookie of the year in 2024, missed five months last season with a fractured thumb sustained when he was hit by a batted ball in batting practice. He has been the team’s best pitcher this season, going 5-1 with a 1.50 ERA. He’s scheduled to pitch Friday.
After that, the Astros are scheduled to go with a converted reliever, Kai-Wei Teng, on Saturday, with Peter Lambert, who spent the last two seasons pitching in Japan, on tap for Sunday.
Care to hear a prediction? This is the weekend the Cubs will collectively remember who they are and snap out of it. As ugly as it has been, 11 games is a small slice of 162, and it’s not exactly a distant memory when the Cubs were winning 20 of 23, 10-game winning streaks bookending three defeats.
“I believe in this group,’’ said Bregman, who said his swing felt as good as it has all season Thursday and feels a breakout coming.
Bregman, coincidentally enough, so far has numbers that roughly parallel those of Kyle Tucker, the guy whose production he was ticketed to replace when Tucker signed with the Dodgers. Tucker is hitting .251, Bregman .249. Both have hit four home runs. Tucker has knocked in 24 runs, Bregman 16. Tucker has a .749 OPS, Bregman .682.
Neither player has yet to approach the levels expected of them by their new employers, but Bregman said his fast start last season with the Red Sox was an anomaly, and his personal hitting coach, Jason Columbus, said the same. Columbus said it’s usually around now that Bregman begins to heat up. They’ve identified, he said, the mechanical flaw in Bregman’s swing, and you’ll soon see the difference.
It certainly isn’t for a lack of effort. Columbus flies in for every home game and meets with Bregman daily, usually reviewing video together. Columbus goes home with Bregman after the game, which they review. Bregman also gets worked on by his personal physical therapist.
And what does Reagan Bregman, Alex’s wife, think about Columbus’ omnipresence?
Bregman smiled. “She’s in for the grind, too,’’ he said.
No one has had a more grueling grind of late than Pete-Crow Armstrong, who acknowledged that the notoriety that followed last Sunday’s pop-off at The Patio, a profane exchange that led to MLB fining him $5,000, has taken its toll. Crow-Armstrong made what he called “genuinely laughable” errors in each of the last two games of the Brewers series.
“I haven’t contributed to any games where I’ve given people a chance to feel any sort of good way about what I’m doing out there,’’ he said Wednesday night.
“Results don’t show, but I feel really good in the box. I’m still proud of my at-bats. I’m still showing up every day. So the way that I work and the way that everybody else in here works, individual stuff is going to turn around.’’
