PITTSBURGH — Stunning.
“Stunning for sure,” Cubs pitcher Kyle Hendricks said.
In seven games, the Cubs have gone from the thick of the division race — with a one-game lead for the final wild-card spot — to the brink of elimination, losing all seven games, including a 9-2 debacle in Pittsburgh on Tuesday night that included five errors.
“Didn’t expect this to be happening,” said Hendricks, the Game 7 World Series starter in 2016, who took a no-hitter into the sixth inning Tuesday before the bottom fell out in the seventh.
“I don’t really know what to say to it,” he said. “We were not prepared for this at all. It’s just unfortunate with this group that we just couldn’t come together and get the job done.”
Even before Tuesday, six close losses at home all but gutted the Cubs’ last chance to sneak into the playoffs after more than half a season of mediocre baseball. Failing to score more than one run against struggling Pirates rookie Mitch Keller, then allowing seven runs in the seventh to a team on a nine-game losing streak might have been a fitting note on which to end the Cubs’ hopes for a miracle finish with five games left.
When the Brewers beat the Reds on Tuesday night, it meant the Cubs need to win out and the Brewers need to lose out to force a tie for the final wild-card spot.
In other words: Next.
“That’s naturally the next thought to have at this point, with what’s been occurring,” Hendricks said. “I haven’t really had a lot of time to think about that yet, but I’m sure a lot of us in here will have some things said to each other and figure out the next steps going forward to just prevent anything like this from happening again.”
The Cubs played without their top two shortstops, including Javy Baez, who unsuccessfully tested his injured left thumb in practice before the game. Rookie Nico Hoerner had his first poor game in the field Tuesday, committing two of the errors.
The Cubs also were without All-Star third baseman Kris Bryant, who suffered a “moderate” sprained ankle when he slipped on a base Sunday. And with likely nothing to be gained by trying to rush back, Bryant’s season appears done.
Even first baseman Anthony Rizzo, whose dramatic return from his own badly sprained ankle last week wasn’t enough to inspire victory, was troubled by more pain in the ankle Tuesday night. His status for the final five games is in doubt.
Veteran pitcher Jon Lester, who knows something about late-season collapses after being part of the Red Sox’ infamous chicken-and-beer collapse in 2011, makes one clear distinction about this team this time around.
“One thing about us I hope everybody sees from the outside looking in is that everybody here plays hard, and everybody is giving everything they can,” Lester said. “You look at our two big guys. Rizz making an aggressive play, takes a 6-by-6 chunk out of the infield and rolls his ankle. He’s trying to fight back and play. Our other middle-of-the-order guy [Bryant] is running hard trying to break up a double play and slips off the bag and rolls his ankle. You’ve got Javy breaking his thumb sliding, playing hard. There’s definitely been no letdowns.”
On the brink of their first season without a playoff game since 2014, the Cubs know big changes could be coming — although nobody is sure exactly what.
“We’ll just have to wait and see,” Hendricks said. “But I know how much I love every guy in this group and things we’ve been able to do together, even the guys we’ve brought in.”
It’s doubtful even a playoff berth alone was going to keep big changes from coming — a result of expectations from the 2015-16-17 trips to the NLCS.
“Expectations all along was to win,” Hendricks said. “That’s what we always wanted to create around here, and that’s what we have right now. There’s just a lot of disappointment in coming up short like this. Very unexpected.”
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