{"id":659204,"date":"2026-04-02T17:30:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T17:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/659204\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T17:30:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T17:30:26","slug":"cubs-mediocre-start-to-the-season-raises-key-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/659204\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs mediocre start to the season raises key question"},"content":{"rendered":"

Six games in, and the Cubs are sitting at 3 \u2013 3, which sounds harmless until you look at how it\u2019s happening. When the pitching is sharp, Chicago wins. When the lineup has to grind, they don\u2019t. And that outcome is not really news to anyone, right? The formula is easy to concept: play good baseball = win column. But the thing is, with these Cubs, the expectation is higher. PCA. Nico. Bush. Dansby. Bregman. Which sparks the question \u2013 is this offense built to create its own pressure consistently, or is it built to survive on hopes and vibes?<\/p>\n

MORE: 5 MLB rookies to keep your eyes on in 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

A Series That Told the Whole Story<\/p>\n

\"\"Jul 21, 2025; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner (2) reacts after striking out against the Kansas City Royals during the first inning at Wrigley Field. Mandatory Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The Angels series gave us the full picture in three games. Chicago got blanked 2\u20130 in the middle game while Jos\u00e9 Soriano went 6 scoreless, and the Angels finished a 4-hit shutout\u2014the Cubs went 0-4 with runners in scoring position, and stranded seven.<\/p>\n

The next day, they responded with a 6\u20132 win behind a five-run third inning, with Nico Hoerner going 3-for-5 with two doubles, an RBI, a run, and a stolen base. That swing\u2014from lifeless to functional\u2014is exactly why the start feels mediocre instead of encouraging.<\/p>\n

Inconsistency Is the Real Problem<\/p>\n

The Cubs have already shown the early warning signs that kill seasons\u2014they can be productive, but not reliably punishing. They can survive cold nights at Wrigley. They can survive one shutout. What they can\u2019t survive is a lineup that only scores when everything lines up perfectly.<\/p>\n

And what happens when they start facing real pitching depth every series? Because the competition hasn\u2019t necessarily been stellar.<\/p>\n

MORE: Stanley Cup power rankings heading into April<\/a><\/p>\n

Pitching Is Doing Its Job<\/p>\n

\"\"Apr 1, 2026; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago Cubs pitcher Matthew Boyd (16) delivers during the first inning against the Los Angeles Angels at Wrigley Field. Mandatory Credit: Matt Marton-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

And the pressure is amplified because the pitching has actually been good enough to win more. Matthew Boyd rebounded with 10 strikeouts over 5.2 innings in the series finale. Ben Brown\u2019s relief work in the shutout loss was nasty too\u2014multiple scoreless innings and strikeouts that should have been enough.<\/p>\n

When your staff is giving you that, and you still lose because you can\u2019t push runners across, the issue isn\u2019t just bad luck.<\/p>\n

The Question That Matters<\/p>\n

So the question is simple, and I won\u2019t be polite about it. Do the Cubs have enough lineup length to win games when they aren\u2019t hitting nukes? Or are they about to spend April proving that the offense is all paper?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Six games in, and the Cubs are sitting at 3 \u2013 3, which sounds harmless until you look…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,138,24,4245,161,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-659204","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-cubs","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-cubs","11":"tag-chicagocubs","12":"tag-cubs","13":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116336306876655124","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}