The Cubs hoped an off day after a big win could help their scuffling offense find its groove.
Throw in their best pitcher on the mound and against a team that has been struggling after selling at the trade deadline last week and the recipe for success was there.
Instead, the bats were dormant after Thursday’s off day, failing to produce a run and dropping the series opener to the St. Louis Cardinals 5-0 at Busch Stadium. It’s the Cubs’ (66-49) third loss in four games after dropping two of three to the Cincinnati Reds at Wrigley Field.
Here are three takeaways from the loss to the Cardinals (59-58):
Offensive woes
The Cubs offense has been in a rut; that’s not news or a big state secret.
But it’s the lack of a threat that this once potent offense had that is worrisome. Three straight innings, the Cubs put the leadoff man on base and in none of those frames did it feel like they were poised for a breakthrough – even when they put the first two on in the fifth.
Nico Hoerner drew a walk and Dansby Swanson singled to put runners on first and second with top of the lineup – Michael Busch, Seiya Suzuki and Kyle Tucker due up trailing by a run. The Cubs couldn’t have drawn it up better.
But that trio isn’t in the same groove as when they were mashing in June.
[MORE: Cubs leadership sends clear message to lineup amid offensive slump]
Since the All-Star break, Busch, Suzuki, Tucker and Pete Crow-Armstrong are collectively slashing .193/.299/.332. That quartet all have an OPS north of .830 on the season, but they’ve all hit a funk at the same time, something seemingly impossible.
And that’s why it wasn’t surprising to see Busch strike out, Suzuki pop out to second and Kyle Tucker fly out to see that threat go out with a whimper. The Cubs finished without an extra-base hit in the loss, were 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position and stranded nine runners on the basepaths.
The Cubs need two — heck at least one — of that foursome to get back on track and hopefully get this offense going. The way the Brewers are playing, it’s getting late in early August.
So-So Boyd
Like that fifth inning, the Cubs couldn’t ask for a better starter after Wednesday’s win over the Reds, with left-hander Matthew Boyd toeing the rubber.
Boyd wasn’t terrible – he allowed three runs on seven hits in five innings with three strikeouts – but the way the Cubs’ offense is struggling, you almost needed him to be perfect to feel like they had a chance.
That’s asking a lot, even from the Cubs’ most consistent starter this year.
Sure, Boyd wasn’t his sharpest and you could argue he should have finished some of the at-bats in the second inning – the first three hitters reached that frame after falling into two-strike counts – but that’s being really nitpicky on a night when the offense didn’t produce.
Bullpen struggles
Again, we’re prefacing this by saying at the end of the day, the Cubs offense needs to score more runs because pitching performances only matter so much when a team doesn’t push a player to home plate.
But the Cubs’ bullpen woes since the start of July are concerning. The Cubs’ reliever corps has a 5.76 ERA since July 1, the fourth-worst mark in baseball. From May 1 to June 30, the Cubs’ bullpen had a league-best 2.40 ERA.
In May and June when things were clicking and it felt like Craig Counsell couldn’t bring in a bad option from the bullpen, you knew that it wouldn’t last forever and those numbers have come crashing down to earth.
In a game like Friday, a bullpen’s struggles are magnified because of their inability to keep the team in a game. Not every reliever arm is a high-leverage option and those lower-leverage choices need to be able to come into games where they’re down and keep the score where it is and allow the offense to come back.
That’s not what happened for Ryan Brasier in the sixth. He’s been a key bullpen arm for Counsell this year and was brought in the sixth inning to keep the score close.
After striking out the first two hitters in the frame, he allowed a home run, a double and a single. And just like that, a manageable, three-run game turned into a five-run deficit.
Again, it didn’t matter since the offense was held in check on Friday, but the bullpen woes of late are still concerning.