The Rundown: Cubs Streaking Wrong Way, Counsell Keeping Faith, Brown Ace-Like in Pittsburgh
“Hang it up and see what tomorrow brings.” – Truckin’ by The Grateful Dead
The Wrong Way Cubs now have nine losses in a row. Tom Ricketts could make a fortune selling antacids at Wrigley Field.
I’d like to thank Craig Counsell and the Cubs for letting us all prep for the upcoming NFL season a little earlier than usual. The North Siders are now 9-25 (.265) when they’re not riding 10-game winning streaks. That’s a 42-win pace, which seems a bit odd to say when you’re talking about a 29-25 team that sits just 3.5 games behind the Brewers. Forgive me if I’m out of line for saying it feels a lot more like 35 games.
Counsell finally added some younger blood to the lineup, though the results didn’t change because Chicago’s bats have all the rigidity of a bowl of Ramen. Ben Brown deserved a win in yesterday’s 2-1 loss to the Pirates, but the Cubs couldn’t generate any offense against Carmen Mlodzinski. They’ve been held to three runs or fewer in seven of the nine losses.
The bigger issue, and one that spans Jed Hoyer’s entire tenure in the big chair, is Chicago’s proclivity for elongated, team-wide hitting slumps. We go through this every season. The Cubs strike out a lot, and they’ve redefined the meaning of futility with runners in scoring position. You would think the front office would therefore target players who succeed in putting wood to a baseball. Carson Kelly is batting .294, but nobody else is near .275 in a group of regulars that includes Dansby Swanson (.186), Ian Happ (.211), Pete Crow-Armstrong (.223), and Michael Busch (.230). Armstrong has earned the nickname “PC Triple-A” here in Milwaukee. Ouch.
“Offensively, we are equipped to be way more consistent than this and way better than this, and we need to show it,” Counsell said after yesterday’s loss.
Chicago’s manager is as astute as anybody in baseball, so I tend to side with his opinion. That said, the Cubs are batting .236 as a team with a middling .387 SLG. A third of the season is in the books, so those stats are slightly more telling than Counsell’s opinion. Yet they’re second-best in the NL in OBP and top-four in terms of OPS+, so getting on base is not a problem.
The lineup is missing a banger in the mold of Aaron Judge or Kyle Schwarber. Happ leads the Cubs with 10 taters, but he’s also striking out 30% of the time. Seiya Suzuki could fill that void, but, like the rest of his teammates, he’s prone to extended slumps. Power is great, but it’s less necessary when the team is consistently hitting singles and doubles with ducks on the pond. It stands to reason, however, that if your failure rate is 75% or more in any situation, you’ll probably similarly underperform when it matters most.
Cubs News & Notes
- Counsell said the Cubs “gotta play better” to avoid a double-digit losing streak.
- It has truly been a season of extremes for the Cubs and their fans.
- Chicago’s offensive collapse has officially become impossible to ignore.
- Edward Cabrera was placed on the IL and Jordan Wicks was recalled to take his place.
- Former Cubs’ skipper David Ross says he isn’t getting any calls to manage again.
Ball Four
The Twins hired a new manager and a new general manager in the middle of the 1985 season. They won the World Series two years later.
The Cubs have lost 9 straight games after beginning a 10-game win streak 27 days ago.
The last MLB team to have a win & loss streak of 9 or more games within a span of 27 days was the 1985 Twins. pic.twitter.com/eXQnSJI3ny
— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) May 26, 2026
Central Intelligence
- Milwaukee (31-20): Jacob Misiorowski hit 103 mph or more an unprecedented eight times in the first inning on Monday and hit triple digits 57 times, 10 more than any other pitcher since the pitch tracking era began in 2008. The Brewers’ ace is the first pitcher to reach 100 strikeouts this season.
- St. Louis (29-23): Shirtless dudes are taking over MLB stadiums across the country. That’s something we can all thank the Cardinals for.
- Chicago (29-25): The Cubs promoted outfielder Kevin Alcántara over the weekend in favor of infielder Nicky Lopez, who is reportedly one of Counsell’s favorites. Alcantara has one plate appearance in two games.
- Cincinnati (28-25): After a 7-2 win vs. the Mets on Monday, the Reds have a 26-15 record against all clubs outside the NL Central. That’s third-best in MLB. That could give Cincinnati an edge in the stacked division.
- Pittsburgh (28-26): Pirates’ ace Paul Skenes is shockingly not among the top 10 favorites to win this year’s NL Cy Young award.
How About That!
Christmas came early in Texas, where Astros reliever Alimber Santa finished a combined no-hitter against the Rangers on Monday night.
It was the first no-hitter in the major leagues since Shōta Imanaga and two Cubs relievers combined for a 12-0 win over the Pirates on September 4, 2024. No pitcher has tossed a complete-game no-hitter since Blake Snell did it against Cincinnati on August 2, 2024.
The Rays have agreed to terms with reliever Craig Kimbrel on a major league deal.
Wander Franco was found criminally responsible for abusing a minor, but will not go to prison. In his decision, Judge José Antonio Núñez considered that Franco had been the victim of extortion and blackmail by the minor’s mother. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison for sexually trafficking her daughter.
MLB is going all-out to help America celebrate its sesquicentennial.
Three from the Bill Chuck Files
- On May 26, 1959, the Pirates’ Harvey Haddix retired every Milwaukee Braves batter through perfect 12 innings. In the bottom of the 13th, Félix Mantilla became the first Brave to reach when third baseman Don Hoak threw the ball away. Eddie Mathews successfully laid down a sac bunt. Haddix intentionally walked Hank Aaron, and Joe Adcock ended the no-hitter, the shutout, and the game with a line drive over the wall in right-center field. Aaron thought it was grounds rule double and left the basepath after Mantilla crossed the plate, and Adcock’s hit was scored as a game-winning double, and the Braves won 1-0.
- A new curse? The Cubs have not won a game since May 15th, the day that Billy Goat Tavern owner Sam Sianis died.
- Corbin Carroll has played 538 games. He has hit 89 homers and 51 triples. The only player in MLB history to reach 50+ triples and 80+ home runs in fewer career games was Lou Gehrig (461 games).
Apropos of Nothing
MLB batters are hitting a collective .238 with a .387 SLG. Baseball is more enjoyable when batting average is up, and I’ll die on that hill.
The powers that be decided after the 1968 season that changes were needed to inject more offense into baseball, so the mound was lowered and four expansion teams were added. For reference, the league batting average was .243 in ’68 and jumped to .252 the following season.
Pitchers aren’t better today, but in this era of advanced analytics and specialization, offense suffers just as much as it did then. The game is being strategized into boredom. That is the problem MLB needs to fix.
Extra Innings
Brown is starting to look like an ace in the making.
Ben Brown's 2Ks in the 4th pic.twitter.com/R1F9ANKUc3
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 25, 2026
They Said It
- “We gotta play better, we gotta swing the bats better, we gotta pitch better, we need more guys contributing to good stuff. And as a coaching staff, we gotta figure out a way to get the players there.” – Counsell
Tuesday Walk-Up Song
Thirty-five years after his death, jazz giant Miles Davis, who would have turned 100 years old today, remains a truly larger-than-life figure in music and well beyond.
“When you go through Miles’ whole catalog, you see you can have quiet days. You can have loud days. You can have explosive days. But the key is that consistency. And that discipline.” – Wyclef Jean
