HOUSTON — The Cubs, who’ve hit some rough terrain recently, have led the National League Central by 6½ games, but the Brewers and Cardinals have made up ground the last week and a half.
After the Cubs’ 2-0 loss to the Astros on Sunday, the Brewers (47-37) and Cardinals (47-38) had closed to two and 2½ games back of the Cubs (49-35), respectively.
“You want to have urgency every time you come to the ballpark,” right-hander Jameson Taillon said after allowing two runs in 4⅔ innings. “It’s a privilege and an honor, playing in the big leagues. But also, this is such a good crew of veteran guys. You don’t want to hit the panic button at all.
“It’s like, keep showing up, keep doing the right things, stack days, have the right process, and it’ll turn. We’re playing some good teams; they’re playing us really tough. And there’s going to come a point in time where we flip the script, and teams are coming to us and saying, ‘Man, those guys are really hot.’ ’’
That was the case for much of the first half of the season. The Cubs had the best record in the NL on June 21.
They were bound to cool off for a stretch.
In their last 12 games, the Cubs have gone 5-7, splitting series with the Brewers and Cardinals and losing to the Mariners and Astros. That barely would’ve registered as a slump last season, when the Cubs fell into a seven-week rut in May and June.
“Last year, it just felt like it was a couple-month thing,” Taillon said. “This has just been a couple-week thing. And we’re playing good teams, too. It’s not like we’re out here just getting it handed to us every day.”
He used this latest loss as an example. The Cubs put up zeros against Astros left-hander Framber Valdez. A two-run home run by Jose Altuve was the difference
“It’s a good team; they don’t lose at home,” Taillon said. “Framber’s really good, Altuve is a really good player. So it’s not like we’re out here just giving teams games. That’s another cause for optimism. Just weather it now and keep going.”
The Cubs reached the halfway point in the season Thursday with a 48-33 record. By comparison, 81 games into 2024, the Cubs were 37-44, sitting in fifth place in the division with their trade-deadline plan up in the air.
At the halfway point this year, the Cubs had scored 437 runs, their most first-half runs since 2008 (442). Even more impressive, their 428 RBI were their most in the first half of a season since 1930 (480).
“We’ve played a really good brand of baseball,” left fielder Ian Happ said Thursday after left-hander Shota Imanaga’s return from the injured list.
“Regardless of the record, I think the most exciting thing about the first half is we’ve run the bases well, we’ve played great defense, the offense has shown up, the bullpen’s been dominant, starting pitching has been really good, Shota’s healthy now. All of those things for where we are in the season are exciting with another 81 games left.”
The Cubs also have limited the long losing streaks. Their longest has been three games, which they’ve suffered twice.
To end their most recent skid, the Cubs shut out the Cardinals in consecutive games last week, 8-0 and 3-0.
“The regular season in baseball is a great test that involves everything: It involves struggles, it involves winning streaks, losing streaks,” manager Craig Counsell said.
“And we’re halfway through it, but we know that there’s a lot of all those events yet to happen. So ready for it and looking forward to it.”