By Jordan Long
The Chicago Cubs are in the midst of their worst losing streak this year dropping 11 in a row. They look to avoid a 12th straight loss when they host the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Cubs were playing like not only a postseason contender, but a World Series threat on June 24th. Chicago was tied on top of the NL Central standings with the Milwaukee Brewers at 42-33. The team was coming off a combined no hitter. That all changed on June 25th.
On June 25th, Chicago was in their 2nd game of a 4 game series against the Dodgers in L.A. They fell 6-2, which started this stretch of losses. Chicago has been outscored 83 to 35 during this skid. The Cubs could have ended it a few times to be on the winning side but things didn’t workout. On June 26th Chicago was tied at 2 against the Dodgers going to the 9th inning, L.A. ended the game on a Cory Bellinger home run. The Cubs fell 2-1 against the Brewers on June 29th. They had their chance to win the game but still lost.
Their worst defeat was on June 30th. The Cubs looked like they were going to drum the Brewers after a 7 run first inning in Milwaukee. Unfortunately, the bullpen let them down. The Brewers answered with 15 unanswered runs including an 8 run 4th inning.
On July 2nd, Chicago started a 3 game set to finish up the road trip in Cincinnati. All of these were winnable games. The Cubs dropped each game by 1 run. They headed home hoping Wrigley field would help them. It hasn’t to this point. Chicago has dropped the first 2 games out of four to Philadelphia, being outscored 28-13.
Chicago went from being tied for 1st place in the National League Central to 4th place at 42-44, 9 games back of the Brewers. During this slide, Chicago’s offense is not getting it going. They are hitting .226 as a team which is 28th in baseball during this stretch. Chicago smacked 13 home runs which aren’t bad. They are not having the timely hits with a man on base. When there is a batter in scoring position Chicago is unable to bring him home to cut the deficit.
It is not all on the offense. The pitchers aren’t doing their job. The team ERA is 6.14 which ranks 28th during this slide. Starters aren’t keeping opponents off the scoreboard and the relievers aren’t getting out of innings. Manager David Ross waits too long to switch pitchers out when they don’t have it during that outing taking a close game to a blowout. When Ross decides to change pitchers it is way too late. The game can be already out of hand or lead to a blown save. Luckily, the Cubs are only in July. They can’t win the division in July but they are playing themselves out of the division title. The Cubs can still end this bump in the road and end up on a long winning streak. They have done it before but right now, this is the lowest they have fallen. Hopefully, they can get back to their winning ways. Otherwise, they will be below .500 by the time the season ends.
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