PITTSBURGH — All the bad moments start to blur together when the consecutive losses pile up.
The missed opportunities, poorly executed pitches, failures with runners in scoring position, defensive miscues — the Chicago Cubs have plenty of reasons their MLB-best record transformed into the worst in the National League Central over the last 19 days.
Tuesday’s performance wasn’t competitive in a 12-1 blowout by the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Cubs’ 10th consecutive loss and 14th in 16 games. Even their typically even-keeled manager was clearly frustrated, with an edge in his tone postgame.
“Everyone’s just got to step up and get hits in those spots — there’s not much more to say than that,” Craig Counsell said. “You’ve got to conduct a big-league at-bat. Those are the at-bats you want to have during the course of a game, and you’ve got to deliver. We’re kind of having the same inning over and over again, and it’s about delivering in those situations. And until we do, we’re going to be talking about the same thing.”
The Cubs (29-26) are the second team in the last 10 years to have two 10-game winning streaks and one 10-game losing streak in the same season, joining the 2017 Los Angeles Dodgers, who went on to win 104 games and lost the World Series in seven games.
The Cubs last had a season with at least one 10-game winning and losing streak in 1970. This marks the first time in the modern era (since 1901) they have recorded both streaks before June.
“The 10-game winning streaks show what this team’s capable of, and the last stretch has shown what happens when you don’t execute against the best players in the world,” third baseman Alex Bregman told the Tribune. “We have to find a way to execute. This is a get-it-done league. It’s just not good enough. We have to be better at executing and way more consistent with it collectively.
“It honestly shows that if you don’t execute against these guys, you’re going to get your ass kicked. … Personally, the only way to deal with adversity is to stare it head on and go right into the fire with it and to attack it, and I know that’s what I’m doing.”
Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer was at PNC Park on Tuesday. At this point in the season, there aren’t many external upgrades to make beyond waiver claims. Hoyer said he tries to talk to Counsell and the coaches during tough stretches to understand the why behind what’s happening while also offering support.
“This is the same coaches, the same process, same manager to win 20 out of 23 and then immediately followed up by (the skid),” Hoyer said. “It’s not the people. It’s just about getting these guys on the right track and showing confidence in our guys and in our coaches and the process. That’s really important when this happens because everyone’s frustrated, everyone’s searching, everyone’s trying to find solutions.
“This basically same group of players (from 2025) has been the exact opposite, and that probably speaks more to the randomness of our game than it does to any characteristic of our players because these same players were amazingly consistent last year. We just have to play better baseball and realize we’ve played 33% of the season. We’ve got a long way to go, and let’s have a lot more hot streaks than these streaks the rest of the way.”
There’s plenty of blame to go around for the Cubs’ horrid stretch.
Some days, like Tuesday, the Cubs aren’t getting enough from their starting pitcher. Jordan Wicks, making his first big-league start since September 2024, surrendered eight runs in 4 1/3 innings. A four-pitch walk to Konnor Griffin, all uncompetitive pitches out of hand, to begin the bottom of the first set the tone for the night.
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Wicks attributed his rocky five-run first to too much adrenaline that he didn’t harness well enough. For an offense mired in an awful slump, it became an immediate challenge.
Or, as Counsell put it, “You’re up against it all night, 100%.”
“You can’t go out there and put your team in a hole like that and expect good things to happen,” Wicks said. “This one’s on me. When you allow crooked numbers like that, it’s hard to have good outings.”
The Cubs’ struggles with runners in scoring position emerged again against Pirates starter Braxton Ashcraft and the bullpen. They went 1-for-13 in those situations and left 11 on base.
“You don’t deliver every time, but we’ve got to have some level of production,” Counsell said. “Pressing? I don’t know. I’m not sure what the answer is to that. The answer is it’s a big-league at-bat with men on base. It’s the at-bat you want in the game. It’s the at-bat you can make a difference for your team. It’s the at-bat you can flip the score of a game, flip the course of a game, and it’s time for us to deliver.”
The Cubs continue to search for answers. Players know they will come out on the other side of this skid, but sticking to the process hasn’t yielded much offense lately. During this 2-14 stretch, the Cubs have scored two runs or fewer nine times while getting shut out four times.
“In the short term, you do need to have urgency to win a game, and every game matters,” right-hander Jameson Taillon told the Tribune. “But as a group, collectively, we lean on that experience and we know that at the end of the year we’ll be good. Butyou can’t just sit here and necessarily say that when we’re struggling.
“It’s all contagious in a weird way. There’s something numbers and analytics can’t put on how contagious winning together can be and losing together can be. The game can steal confidence from you pretty quick.”
For Taillon, who starts Wednesday, a team’s sense of urgency comes from a mindset. He believes it’s not about working harder, which he already sees his teammates doing daily, but rather not accepting losing. As much as the Cubs believe everything will balance out by the end of the season and they will find themselves in the postseason again, that can’t seep into their daily thoughts.
“We need to just lock into today’s game and stay process-oriented, keep doing your work, but you can’t also just say we’re going to be great in September because today really matters,” Taillon said. “You can be doing the same routine, the same process. You can feel like you’re making good pitches for a stretch. Everything just feels harder and more magnified. And then there’s stretches where things feel easier and you get away with more.
“It’s a weird thing, how the game punishes you for a bit, you work on things, and then it rewards you for a bit and makes you feel invincible.”
Players know it’s on them to turn things around. It’s a veteran group who all have experienced tough moments during their careers. That knowledge doesn’t make this skid feel less daunting.
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“I haven’t experienced a season with the streaks that we’ve had,” Counsell said. “The game can keep giving you surprises, and that’s the beauty of it, too, and the fun of this is there’s no script to a season. It’s not going to go a certain way. Just because yesterday went this way doesn’t promise you anything tomorrow.
“Maybe those are all cliches, but that’s what’s great.”