Cubs' continued skid hasn't shaken belief that 'the tide will turn'

CHICAGO -- The wind was blowing out at Wrigley Field on an 86-degree day on Sunday. Combined, those factors typically have been the right ingredients for a good day to hit on the North Side.

Instead, Sunday’s series finale between the Cubs and Cardinals was a pitchers' duel, and for Chicago, more of the same from an offense that continues to search for answers.

​​”It was a light day offensively,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said after the 2-1 loss. “We didn't do enough to score runs, flat out.

“We made it hard for them to score, too,” Counsell added. “Just not enough balls hit in the right spots today. Not enough balls pulled with some air underneath them.”

The Cubs’ one run came across in the seventh, when Ian Happ doubled and later scored on a Michael Busch single. Chicago went 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left eight on base.

More important than those numbers are the big-picture realities this team is facing amid an extended downward stretch. The Cubs are 16-26 since May 1. They have not won a three-game series since taking two of three from the Pirates on May 10-12.

“It’s been a tough go,” Cubs starter Jameson Taillon said. “I think the best way to look at it is you can start a better streak and you can turn the year around today. It feels like we haven't been able to turn the page off of this tough streak. It is what it is, it's happened. And now, it's time for us to move past it and try to find a way to climb out of it.

“... I think we have a really good team. We have a lot of talent, and for whatever reason right now, it's just not all clicking at the same time. But it's a long year. We have [90] games left. So we still have time to put our foot down and turn this around.”

Sunday was perhaps a microcosm of a larger trend the Cubs have faced over the last month-plus, when they have struggled to get all phases of their game clicking simultaneously.

They got a good outing from Taillon, who allowed two runs on seven hits in six innings. Pedro Pagés hit a two-run homer in the second. The bullpen, which entered Sunday tied for second in MLB with 15 blown saves, got three scoreless innings from Drew Smyly and Keegan Thompson, who combined to allow just a pair of singles and one walk.

The offense’s struggles included leaving the bases loaded in the fourth, when Nico Hoerner grounded into a fielder’s choice with two outs. Happ was called out on a close play at second base, a call that stood after the Cubs challenged.

Chicago got leadoff walks from Mike Tauchman in the eighth and Happ in the ninth, but neither came around to score.

“I think [our mindset] is the same every day,” shortstop Dansby Swanson said when asked about Sunday’s conditions. “We go out there to compete. We go out there to win baseball games, put together good at-bats. Just for whatever reason, it’s not happening. But we’ve got a lot of more-than-capable guys in this clubhouse.

“We’ve got a lot of guys that have been there and done that, and had successful careers and proven themselves to be really good hitters. We know that and we believe that. You’ve just got to keep going, and at some point, the tide will turn.”

Entering Sunday tied for 21st in MLB with an average 3.77 runs per game in June, the Cubs’ offensive struggles have been discussed at length. So, too, has their belief that eventually their individual statistics will reflect those on the backs of their baseball cards.

But halfway through June, and nearly halfway through their schedule, they are fully aware of what matters most.

“We’ve got to find a way to win games,” Taillon said. “We can talk about it all we want. We can try to assess it and figure it out. But at some point, you just gotta put wins in the win column. The positive side of that is I do truly believe we have a good team. We have names, we have dudes who have done it in the past.

“We've got guys who have been very successful in this league. You've got guys that are preparing extremely hard. You've got ultimate pros in the locker room and people who show up with a good mindset and mentality, and they're preparing and [have a] great work ethic. So that's where the positivity comes from.”