What will it take to get Cubs hitters to relax?
What the Cubs need most right now was not available for purchase at the trade deadline.
They've got to find a way to relax, calm down, chill out.
A group that's had a prior tendency to get sullen, mopey and be slow to recover from tough times, is at it again. The pitching has been decent lately, but the hitters are swinging wildly like the season depends on blasting a home run on the very next pitch.
Guess what, Cubs? It doesn't.
Sure, the Brewers are well out in front in the NL Central, practically out of sight. If they continue at their current pace of winning every single game, the Brewers will finish with 118 wins.
The Cubs still lead the NL wild-card race, which is actually a nice place to be. Anyone happen to know the record of National League teams that earn a first-round bye into the divisional playoffs? Answer: 1-5.
Four 100-win NL teams have lost in the divisional round since the MLB playoffs were expanded. A 111-win Dodgers team lost to the 89-win Padres in 2022. Finishing second in the NL Central means nothing, if the Cubs find a way to reach a peak in October.
The mid-August Cubs won't win much of anything. Cubs hitters finished Thursday's 2-1 loss in Toronto with six swinging strikeouts over the last two innings. This happened while they had runners on second and third with no outs in the eighth, and a runner on second in the ninth.
“We just didn't get the job done, simple as that,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell told reporters after the contest.
This was another one of those games that defied the odds. According to StatCast, the Cubs had 16 of the 20 hardest hits of the afternoon and 13 of 20 farthest hits, but they managed just 1 run on a Michael Busch solo homer.
The Cubs went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position, making it very similar to Tuesday's loss in Toronto, when they were 1-for-9 in those situations. Or the 3-2 loss in St. Louis on Sunday, when they got 8 hits but scored all their runs on a Matt Shaw homer.
By touching the plate just once Thursday, the Cubs needed starter Matthew Boyd to be perfect. He came close but surrendered a 2-run homer to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on an 0-2 pitch in the seventh inning.
“He hit my mistake, hats off to him,” Boyd said. “That loss is on me.”
Uh, no, it wasn't. Most every loss these days can be blamed on the struggling offense. This stretch is beginning to feel like the endless slump of May and June 2024, or the late-season slide of 2023. For some reason, these Cubs find it difficult to shake off tough times. Kyle Tucker and Pete Crow-Armstrong were supposed to change that, but they're deep in the rough themselves.
The Cubs figured bringing up Owen Caissie for his MLB debut in his home province of Ontario might improve the vibes in the clubhouse. Caissie looked confident at the plate. He went 0-for-4 with a strikeout but could have easily had 2 doubles. He was robbed by a diving catch from left fielder Davis Schneider, then ripped one just foul down the right-field line.
Time now for the Cubs to return to Wrigley Field for three against Pittsburgh, then five against Milwaukee. They shouldn't worry about catching the Brewers, just relax and have some fun.
Brewers manager Pat Murphy does an excellent job of keeping things loose. His latest comedy routine was revealing he likes to keep “pocket pancakes” to snack on during games.
Counsell has known Murphy since the Brewers skipper came to Milwaukee to recruit Counsell to Notre Dame around 1988. Counsell gets high marks for being down-to-earth, but does he have the comedy chops to compete with Murphy? Maybe not.
But the Cubs do love bringing in celebrities for the seventh-inning stretch. Just tell Bob Odenkirk, Bill Murray, John Mulaney, Craig Robinson, the ghost of Bob Newhart or whichever Chicago comedian is next to arrive, that a brief stand-up routine in the Joe Madden Celebration room will be required.