Cubs wary of May malaise ending with calendar flipped to June: ‘What are we going to do moving forward?’
The Cubs might have put their recent 10-game losing streak and a somewhat miserable end to May behind them. But the sting is still there.
It’s been a bizarre first two months for the Cubs, who rattled off a pair of 10-game win streaks before plummeting out of first place with 10 straight defeats.
“It’s been a weird season for us so far, up and down,” starting pitcher Colin Rea told the Sun-Times on Tuesday. “Guys have been playing this game a long time in this locker room. And you could probably go around the room and say that no one’s [experienced] the start to the season that we’ve had.”
There was a monkey-off-the-back moment when the Cubs stopped their slide with a couple wins last week in Pittsburgh.
But a sour weekend series in St. Louis followed, and the Cubs finished the month of May in a 5-16 rut. They’ve gone seven consecutive series without a series win.
While a helpful June schedule started Tuesday against the sub-.500 Athletics — the first of 22 straight games against teams that started the month below water — the Cubs have yet to exorcise what ailed them during that nasty losing streak.
“When you’re winning all those games, you walk in the clubhouse and you expect to win that day,” Rea said. “It was rough there when we were losing. Guys were going through some rough patches, and some guys still are.
“After we won in Pittsburgh, my thoughts were: ‘Let’s see what happens the next couple weeks.’ Because it was just two games. ‘Yeah, it feels nice to put the losing streak behind us, but what are we going to do moving forward after we win a couple?’
“It was tough. That’s why you try not to ride the wave, as best as possible. … I hope this home stand kind of gets us back on track.”
PCA thriving at the top
Pete Crow-Armstrong: All Star, 30-30 guy, Gold Glover. And now, Cubs leadoff man.
Craig Counsell, looking for a shake-up during that 10-game skid, rearranged his batting order and put Crow-Armstrong at the top.
The move has paid off, with Crow-Armstrong batting .286/.395/.457 in the Nos. 1 and 2 spots in the lineup, spanning nine games entering Tuesday. His .852 OPS during the stretch is wildly better than the .686 mark he owned before the switch was made.
“I put him up there because, obviously, we were struggling offensively, and we were doing something different, frankly,” Counsell said. “His at-bats were trending in a really good direction. He’s continued that in the leadoff spot.”
Though he cooled off after the All-Star break last season, Crow-Armstrong entered this year as good a candidate as any to be the team’s best offensive player. And considering the leadoff man is the player who gets more at-bats than any other, it makes sense to put a guy there who can do the most damage.
After appearing in only 11 games in the top third of the lineup last season — and after a long stretch near the bottom of Counsell’s lineup this season — enter Crow-Armstrong.
“I told him this: ‘There’s a responsibility of hitting first in the lineup. We are choosing you to hit most,’” Counsell said. “That’s a responsibility. Hopefully that means something.”
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