MILWAUKEE — The latest backbreaking homer hit off closer Jacob Webb is setting off alarms across the North Side, with fans wondering how their Cubs can compete in the postseason with this shaky bullpen.
If they even make it that far.
That’s probably an overreaction to back-to-back bad nights against the best team in baseball.
But as their relievers have stumbled approaching the regular season’s end, things have tightened in the NL wild-card race, and the Cubs woke up Wednesday trailing the Phillies for the top wild-card spot and only three games ahead of the third-place Diamondbacks and 3½ games ahead of the next-in-line Padres.
But given they also woke up Wednesday as baseball’s best offensive team and its best defensive team, there’s still plenty of reason to think their championship-level goals are attainable.
The bullpen will just have to right the ship in time. That’s a scary challenge for many in the crowd.
“Baseball’s a roller coaster,” righty reliever Trent Thornton said Wednesday. “Hardly ever do you see guys be perfect for a whole season. It ebbs and flows.
“All it is is a little blip in the grand scheme of things in the season. It’s unfortunate of the timing of everything, because obviously down the home stretch, every game matters, every pitch matters.
“But [Webb has] been fantastic all year. We still have all the faith in him and everybody else in the bullpen to get the job done.”
Webb — who brought a 24-appearance scoreless streak and a 2.21 ERA into the first of his three recent blown saves — has been fantastic for the majority of the season, unexpectedly thrust into the role of Craig Counsell’s go-to reliever with righty Daniel Palencia sidelined with injuries for much of the campaign.
“He’s a bulldog,” Thornton said of Webb. “As a reliever, you’ve got to be a goldfish. You can’t sit there and think about this, that and the other. The more negative thoughts that you let creep in your head, it doesn’t lead to good places.
“You ask any athlete, the ups and downs of being a competitor, failing for yourself and your team, it’s never easy, it’s never fun. But it’s part of the game. It’s how quickly you can learn from it and adjust and make that change, if you need it.
“But he’s a dog. Everybody in this locker room knows it, too, and he knows it.”
Webb’s not alone, though. Coming into Wednesday:
• Righty trade-deadline acquisition Ryan Zeferjahn had a 6.23 ERA in his first 14 games as a Cub;
• Palencia had an 11.81 ERA in six appearances since returning from the IL;
• Thornton allowed seven runs in his last five appearances;
• Lefty Ryan Rolison gave up multiple runs three different times in August;
• And lefty Caleb Thielbar had allowed 11 homers on the season.
Righty Aaron Civale has been excellent, with a 0.69 ERA in his last dozen appearances, but don’t expect a move to the ninth inning, with Counsell valuing his multi-inning ability.
As Counsell made clear after Tuesday’s loss, “the answers are not” in the minors, where notable names like righties Edward Cabrera and Shelby Miller, as well as lefty Justin Steele, are rehabbing from injuries.
Miller is perhaps the most likely to be able to make an impact, though whether he returns to form after a season-long injury layoff is as big a question mark as what the current major league bullpen can do on a nightly basis.
And so it will be about banking on the latest turn in the roller coaster being a good one. Without it, this is not a relief performance capable of getting the Cubs over a Brewers-shaped hurdle — or any other — in the postseason.
The lights have gotten bright. Can the bullpen handle the glare?
“It’s why we play the game,” Thornton said. “We play 162 games, but that last month of the season, the crowds are better, the fans are better, the intensity’s better, the games mean much more. This is fun. This is why you play the game.
“It’s OK to feel a little tension or whatever it is. It means you care. This is going to be exciting the next couple weeks.”