Cubs' offense sputtering as playoff hopes dwindle

CHICAGO -- Reality for the Cubs is that a prolonged stretch with wins piled up is the only path to working back into the National League Wild Card picture. The North Siders have existed on the outer fringe of that conversation for several weeks, while the players have offered comments clinging to hope.

The pitching has consistently offered a path to the win column, and while Wednesday’s 8-2 loss to the Tigers may not look that way on the surface, that was the situation again at Wrigley Field. A close game morphed into a blowout due to a rough MLB debut for Cubs reliever Jack Neely, but there was a familiar culprit within the defeat.

“We had a couple rallies that we just couldn’t get the next hit,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “That was it.”

The offensive shortcomings that persisted throughout May and June are what have left the Cubs playing catch up the NL standings over the past two months. And while things improved a bit through July and into August, the lineup’s performance over the past week is threatening to issue the final reality check that 2025 should be the full focus for the front office.

Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer already used the Trade Deadline to begin addressing the lineup, bringing Isaac Paredes into the fold from the Rays. Hoyer has also been looking ahead to ‘25 in other roster decisions. Neely was acquired at the Deadline from the Yankees as part of the Mark Leiter Jr. trade, and was promoted to the Cubs on Tuesday when the team parted ways with veteran Héctor Neris.

The playoffs are a rapidly-fading possibility, even amid the never-say-never mantra still being preached by the players.

“It’s similar to the way we looked at the Deadline,” Hoyer said on Tuesday in reference to the front office’s recent line of thinking. “I don’t think things have changed that much. We’ve played better, but I don’t think our odds have increased that much.”

In fact, Fangraphs gave the Cubs a 3.5% chance of reaching the postseason on July 30, which was the day of the Trade Deadline. Through Tuesday, Chicago’s odds had increased to just 3.7% -- virtually no change at all. Following the loss to Detroit on Wednesday night, they were down to 2.8% with the Cubs now 5 1/2 games behind the Braves for the third NL Wild Card spot.

The North Siders pulled within one game of a .500 record (59-60) ahead of a trip to Cleveland, where the Guardians dealt the Cubs a three-game sweep. The past five games have featured three wins, but the need to get on a red-hot run remains.

“I don’t think .500 is like some magic number,” Cubs starter Jameson Taillon said. “We’d obviously love to be over it, but it feels like we’ve definitely done it kind of where we’re playing really well, and then we taper off, play really well, taper off. But, we just won a series [against Toronto]. We have a chance to come in here [Thursday] and win a series. Right now, I think that’s kind of what our mentality should be.”

The Cubs dropped the first game of that series against the Guardians, 9-8, but have since seen the offense slip back into a familiarly frustrating slumber. In the seven games that have followed, Chicago has averaged 2.3 runs per game with a .170/.225/.321 slash line as a team. That includes a .122 (5-for-41) average with runners in scoring position.

Taillon got tripped up in one of his five frames on Wednesday, allowing a two-run homer apiece to Trey Sweeney and Riley Greene in the second inning. The big right-hander then held Detroit to a 2-for-12 showing for the rest of his outing. Reliever Nate Pearson (another Deadline pickup) and Julian Merryweather then combined for three scoreless frames behind Taillon.

“He settled down and did a nice job,” Counsell said of Taillon. “I thought Pearson’s two innings gave us a shot.”

The Cubs’ lone hit with runners in scoring position came in the fifth, when veteran backup catcher Christian Bethancourt kept his strong stint with Chicago going by belting a two-run homer to left. Trailing 4-2, the Cubs then had five baserunners aboard between the sixth and seventh, but could not finish the job.

“I mean, the next hit’s important,” Counsell said. “It’s how you score runs. We got a couple rallies. … It just didn’t play tonight.”