It happened so quickly, relatively speaking, but I get the sense that the negativity and bad feelings have percolated up.
On the one hand, it’s understandable. The Cubs have lost two in a row for the first time in a while, and neither game was even competitive. There are legitimate concerns about the starting pitching, and those concerns were underscored, in part, in these two games. The offense has been absent, which tugs at old feelings about “inconsistency.” We got a flurry of injury updates that didn’t really make us feel as good as we’d want about when the Cubs will have the whole squad together and healthy. Javy Baez had to leave last night’s game after taking a cleat to the knee. And the Brewers have won their last two games, shrinking the Cubs’ NL Central lead to just a game and a half.
That’s an ugly paragraph, man. I get it.
But, a little context:
In the 20 games before these last two, the Cubs had gone 15-5. Some losses were going to come eventually.
The Cubs hadn’t lost back-to-back games in FOUR WEEKS. So, yeah, you’re gonna feel especially negative when it finally happens again. But it was always going to happen at some point, and at least it happened against a good team.
Speaking of which, Patrick Corbin is really good. And Clay Buchholz, weathered though he may be, has gotten ridiculous results this year. Sometimes good pitching will get ya.
Although the Cubs’ lead in the Central is down to 1.5 games, it’s still three in the loss column. The deeper we get into the season, the more meaningful that becomes.
The Cubs were DOWN 1.5 games just 10 games ago. This stuff swings quickly, and it can just as quickly swing in a good direction as a bad direction.
On the injury stuff and the starting pitching stuff, I can’t necessarily offer you positivity – there may be some slogging and ugliness there yet – but I can say that there is still time to supplement before the Trade Deadline, and the roster is very deep.
So, in the end, I’m just saying: I get why things would feel bad right now – worse than they have in almost a month – but when you widen the lens a bit, it’s just a couple losses in a season that will feature 60+ of them.
Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here.
Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.
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