The Cubs blew it Thursday.
Blew what, exactly?
They blew a chance to put some actual heat on the division-leading Brewers. To possibly get inside the heads — even just a little — of their northerly rivals, who’d held a team meeting Wednesday after a third straight loss at Wrigley Field.
The Cubs — 4-1 losers in the finale of a five-game series — blew a prime opportunity to cut their division deficit to five games and seize the kind of momentum they haven’t had at any point since before the All-Star break.
On the other hand, did they really blow anything at all?
One could argue quite easily the Cubs’ National League Central title hopes have been DOA since a week or so before this series even started. Winning four of five against the Brewers probably wasn’t going to put either team on a markedly different path. Winning three of five, leaving the Cubs seven games in the dust? There’s nothing to see here, folks.
“We kind of held serve,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “We probably needed a bit more. … Today stings a little bit. Getting today’s game obviously would’ve been a big one, but they played a better game than us.”
That’s why the Brewers, owners of both the best home record and the best road record in baseball, are chasing a franchise record for wins in a season and the Cubs are merely trying to keep their heads above water for a wild-card berth. The Cubs won the season series 7-6, but that and $10 will get them a George Webb burger if they’re lucky enough to travel to Milwaukee in October as postseason underdogs.
On Counsell’s 55th birthday, his key hitters got him another reeking dud to add to the collection. Did you catch the big news that Kyle Tucker was back in the lineup for the finale? Yes, yes, exciting stuff. Oh, and did you know Tucker still can’t barrel a ball to save his life? Right, right, big surprise.
When Tucker isn’t falling behind in the count before harmlessly rolling grounders to the right side, Pete Crow-Armstrong is swinging at everything within the same area code to similar ill effect. In between them, Seiya Suzuki won’t stop impersonating an overmatched batter at the Little League World Series.
“Any time throughout the year,” Tucker said before the game, “you’re probably one swing away from turning things around for the greater.”
The fifth inning would’ve been a fine time, but Tucker couldn’t get a runner home from third with nobody out in a 2-0 game. Crow-Armstrong mustered a sacrifice fly in the inning, but the “one swing” just keeps not coming for the team’s purported All-Star-caliber swingers. All told, the trio went 0-for-10 for the game, and their team 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
In the eighth, after Tucker was unable to make a difficult catch down the line in right, the Brewers pounced because that’s how they roll. Isaac Collins capitalized with a two-run hit off Cubs reliever Ryan Brasier that might as well have plated three times as many runners.
When it’s over, it’s over.
“[Chasing a team] creates a little bit of just a more singular focus and a more day-to-day urgency,” Counsell said beforehand. “I think when you’re managing on both sides of that, you just notice that and you notice what it does to your personnel and how to use it in your team’s favor.”
Chasing can be fun. Leading, a lot more so.
“The other side is better,” Counsell agreed.
And on that count, he nailed it. Because even factoring in their head-to-head records this season, it’s simple to imagine what this rivalry looks like from the Cubs’ perspective:
Indeed, the other side is better.