CHICAGO — Each Cubs game is starting to follow the same script right now.
The team is struggling to score runs and finds itself locked in a bunch of close games at the moment.
After boasting the best offense in baseball for the first few months of the season, the Cubs have not found the same level of success recently.
“We’ll get hot again,” president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said before Tuesday’s game. “Hopefully it happens fairly soon. No one wants to watch us grind out these games, scoring a couple runs. But it’s a long season and there are gonna be ups and downs.”
That comment was prescient, as the Cubs went out and had to grind out another one Tuesday night at Wrigley Field against the Cincinnati Reds.
Cubs starter Shota Imanaga was up to the task, but the bullpen struggled and the Cubs wound up dropping a second straight game to the Reds, this one by a 5-1 score.
The Cubs are now 65-48 on the season and fell to four games behind the red-hot Milwaukee Brewers, who won their fifth straight game Tuesday night.
Here are three things we learned from the game:
Sho Time
Imanaga was stellar Tuesday night, facing the minimum through the first four innings.
He ran into a bit of trouble in the fifth when he allowed a double and then a single down the left field line to plate a run.
But that was all he permitted on the evening, finishing with 6.1 strong innings. Imanaga struck out seven and did not walk a batter.
It was an encouraging sign for the Cubs, as Imanaga had to grind through his last two outings.
He was tagged for seven runs on 12 hits in just three innings against the White Sox on July 25. He righted the ship a bit his last time out against the Brewers (three runs in five innings), but Tuesday was an absolute gem.
The Cubs will need more of these kinds of performances down the stretch.
Bullpen blowup
After striking out Reds star Elly De La Cruz to begin the seventh inning, Imanaga walked off the mound to a standing ovation from the 39,797 fans in attendance at Wrigley Field.
Manager Craig Counsell went to one of his new high-leverage options out of the bullpen: Andrew Kittredge.
The Cubs acquired the veteran right-hander at the deadline from the Baltimore Orioles. He endeared himself to the fanbase quickly, making two appearances over the weekend and picking up a hold in each one without allowing a baserunner.
[MORE: The ripple effects for Cubs pitching staff after Michael Soroka injury]
But Tuesday night was a different story for Kittredge.
He walked the first hitter he faced and then allowed a single. The next batter — Reds first baseman Spencer Steer — deposited a Kittredge offering into the left field bleachers to break a 1-1 tie.
The bleeding didn’t spot there. Kittredge allowed a ground-rule double, a single and then a sacrifice fly.
All told, he was charged with four runs in just 0.1 innings as his season ERA jumped more than a point from 3.24 to 4.28.
And for the Cubs, the damage was done, as a four-run deficit proved insurmountable for the team’s struggling offense.
Since the All-Star break, the Cubs bullpen has allowed 16 home runs — the most in MLB during that span.
A grinding offense
This lineup is really going through it right now.
The Cubs managed just four hits (a night after notching only three hits) and Matt Shaw‘s solo homer in the fifth was the only tally.
As a team, the Cubs went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position — one night after going 0-for-3 in the same situation.
The game actually started out promising. In the bottom of the first inning, Michael Busch led off with a single and then Ian Happ walked.
But Kyle Tucker, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Willi Castro all followed with strikeouts, and just like that, a rally was erased.
Tucker went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts as the Cubs whiffed 10 times total as a team.
The Cubs will try to avoid a sweep in the series finale Wednesday afternoon. They have yet to be swept in a three-game series this season.