On Sunday, Cubs third baseman Patrick Wisdom found himself in a familiar position. He had an at-bat with two runners on and put a good swing on a slider down in the zone.
But Wisdom’s ninth-inning hit stayed inside the park as the Cubs dropped the series against the Cardinals following Sunday’s 2-1 loss.
The Cubs are now 13-16 in one-run games. The Cubs scored six runs in three games against the Cardinals.
“It was a light day offensively,” manager Craig Counsell said. “We didn’t do enough to score runs, flat out.”
The struggles with runners in scoring position persisted as the team went 2-for-10. The team didn’t get its first hit until the fourth inning on a Mike Tauchman single. Right fielder Seiya Suzuki and left fielder Ian Happ each singled to load the bases with two outs. The scoring threat ended after second baseman Nico Hoerner grounded into a force out.
Counsell challenged the call but lost the appeal. It was another scoring chance squandered by the Cubs.
Since May 1, the Cubs have scored the third-fewest runs in baseball entering Sunday’s game. Confidence exists throughout the Cubs despite the rut the team finds itself in.
“It’s been a tough go,” said starter Jameson Taillon, who threw six innings, allowing two earned runs, two walks and seven hits. “The best way to look at it is like you can start a better streak and turn the year around today. We just haven’t been able to turn the page off of this tough streak.”
The Cubs are 6-8 in their last 14 games. This lighter portion of the schedule gave the team a chance to make up ground after a 10-18 record in May. Now, they found themselves three games below .500 in mid-June.
Starting Monday, the Cubs face the Giants (three games) and the Mets (three games) to end this nine-game homestand. If the Cubs want a shot at turning around this season, it starts during this slate of games.
“We’re not winning games,” Taillon said. “At some point, we have to find a way to come together and — whether it’s winning 1-0 games or slugfests — we got to find a way to win games. We can talk about it all we want, we can try to assess it and figure it out, but at some point, you just got to put wins in the win column.”
Winning starts with an inconsistent offense that hasn’t scored four-plus runs in back-to-back games since June 5-6. The Cubs point to the track records of their hitters as to why they can turn things around. But past performance isn’t an indicator of success going forward.
“We’re not guaranteed anything,” Counsell said. “The back of our baseball card doesn’t guarantee us anything.”
Not one of the Cubs’ hitters is hitting .300 or above. Shortstop Dansby Swanson is having his worst year at the plate, slashing .212/.291/.349. He had two walks on Sunday but didn’t produce a hit. He pointed to the group’s experience and track record as reasons the tide will turn.
“We have so many guys in this clubhouse that believe in one another and have been through tough stretches as a group and through tough stretches individually,” Swanson said. “We’re going to keep pushing forward, and at some point, the law of averages will change, and we’ll be in good shape.”
The Cubs haven’t won a three-game series since May 10-12 against the Pirates. With 72 games played, the team is running out of time to change their fortunes.