The Cubs still can’t win a series on the road. Still can’t hit with men in scoring position. Still can’t solve Ivan Nova.
And yet still seem sure they’re a playoff team.
Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo was even asked before Sunday’s 3-1 loss to the White Sox why he seemed sure the Cubs would prevail in the second half.
He started rattling off names of players on the team, eventually saying, “The whole 25-man roster is full of good guys. It speaks for itself.”
So does this: The Cubs reached the All-Star break Sunday on a 10-16 slide thanks to eight consecutive winless series.
They haven’t won a road series in nearly two months, having won just six of their last 22 road games.
Manager Joe Maddon relentlessly pounded the point throughout their just concluded 3-6 trip that they need to “force pitchers to get us out in the strike zone” and put the ball in play more consistently with two strikes.
Team president bemoaned the uncharacteristic “sloppiness” the once-tight-fielding Cubs lineup has shown in recent weeks during a season in which they lag defensively in fielding percentage, advanced metrics and – as players such as Rizzo pointed out – “weird” mental mistakes.
All of which points to depths unseen for this Cubs team during Maddon’s five seasons as manager.
Except for this: These guys are in first place by a half-game as they take an apparently much needed break.
“Good to know,” All-Star shortstop Javy Baez said with a smile when reminded they lead the Brewers in the National League Central. “I didn’t know that.
“We’ve been up and down,” he added. “But we’re in first place. If we don’t worry about it, at the end of the year, we’ll see where we’re at.”
Maybe the break will regenerate this playoff-tested team’s October instincts.
Maybe their mediocre division will continue to keep them in contention regardless of how they finish (they actually picked up a half-game in the standings during that 10-16 run).
And maybe the six games against the Pirates and Reds out of the break will be decisive and tone-setting.
“I think we’re better than our record shows,” All-Star catcher Willson Contreras said.
“I believe in our guys. And you’re going to see a better brand of all this in the second half,” Maddon said. “The rest of the league’s good. They’ve gotten better. But I still believe our best ball’s ahead of us, which I think is going to carry us back into it.”
Until then, they go to the break having won only four of 15 series on the road this season. They last time they lost more road series than the 10 they’ve lost this year was in 2014, when they finished in last place.
They’re 18-26 in games decided by one or two runs.
And with Sunday’s loss, they’ve now been beaten twice by the Sox this season when Nova (6.35 ERA against everyone else) starts against them – with their own former prospect, Eloy Jimenez, hitting decisive two-run homers in each.
“I’m sure the uniform has something to do with it. When he sees it, it might elevate his game a little bit,” Maddon said of Nova (one run allowed in 10 2/3 innings vs. the Cubs this year).
Which makes at least two reasons beyond a pedestrian division for hope, if not optimism, for the Cubs in the second half:
Barring him being traded to the National League, they won’t face Nova again this year.
And this: The Cubs have a .647 winning percentage after the All-Star break under Maddon – by far the best in the majors the last four years.
Bottom line?
“You can’t always lean on your track record,” All-Star third baseman Kris Bryant said. “Each year’s different. Every team’s coming for us. Our division is more competitive. So just the bottom line is we have to be better.
“I don’t think what we’ve done in the first half is going to be good enough.”
