The Cubs want to get hot. They need to get hot. If by some miracle they actually do get hot, it’ll give them at least a chance to make some noise in the National League wild-card race in September.
There’s a problem, though: When it comes to getting hot, these Cubs truly don’t know how.
They have the lowest bullpen ERA in the majors since June 27 and the lowest team ERA since July 4, but they’re merely 22-16 since the latter date after a deflating 1-0 loss Sunday to the Blue Jays. During the course of a season, winning at that rate would mean making the playoffs. But the Cubs buried themselves pretty deep at nine games under .500 on July 3, and the way they got there — by not being able to hit their way out of a paper bag — keeps coming back to haunt them at the most inopportune times.
This one was especially bad and undeniably bitter. The Cubs — still trying to sweep a series of at least three games at Wrigley for the first time since April — needed to push two little runs across to go into an off-day having snatched back all the momentum they had lost in getting swept in Cleveland. Instead, they made Blue Jays starter Bowden Francis look like Roy Halladay. Francis, 28, threw seven scoreless innings for the first time in his career.
‘‘Three one-run games, and we came out on top of two of them,’’ manager Craig Counsell said. ‘‘But obviously we look at today as a missed opportunity.’’
The Cubs put the leadoff hitter on base exactly zero times. They got only one runner as far as third base. That was in the fourth inning, when shortstop Dansby Swanson took strike three to leave the bases loaded. Swanson struck out looking with Nico Hoerner in scoring position in the seventh and left Cody Bellinger on second with a grounder to end the game. Not that Swanson, the team’s highest-paid player, should come through every time, but Cubs fans have seen this no-big-hits act too many times before from this team.
‘‘We obviously would have loved to have swept them today,’’ Swanson said.
The Cubs have 15 games to go in an 18-game stretch against teams with losing records. Then again, their record against such teams is 27-26. Also — double-checking here — the Cubs are a losing team themselves at 61-64, which seems kind of relevant.
But with the Tigers coming in next, followed by series against the Marlins, Pirates, Nationals and Pirates again, even the Cubs might be able to get something going. Are you buying it? Not sure here, either.
‘‘We could say that, yeah,’’ Counsell said. ‘‘You can absolutely say it. But we’ve got to do it.’’
Three-dot dash
• THE WHITE SOX started the season 3-22. Never wanting to miss a chance to outdo themselves, they’ve started the second half 3-24. Their utterly terrible record of 24-49 between those stretches looks amazingly good by comparison until you realize that it still would, all by itself, give them the worst winning percentage (.328) in the majors.
They also haven’t won consecutive games since June, but now we’re just piling on.
. . .
• UNFORTUNATELY, THE SOX were officially eliminated from playoff contention Saturday. In more encouraging news, Luis Robert Jr. was only 30 home runs behind the Yankees’ Aaron Judge for the major-league lead.
. . .
• NOW THAT THE BEARS have won three preseason games by a combined score of 81-26 and treated gung-ho fans to a few jaw-dropping plays by No. 1 draft pick Caleb Williams, shouldn’t we start talking details about that championship parade?
Ah, but don’t tell that to my email inbox, where a representative of one of the big sports-betting sites popped by to say the Bears’ Matt Eberflus has the second-shortest odds — at plus-450, right behind the Giants’ Brian Daboll at plus-300 — to be the first NFL coach fired. Guess the Bears might have to win a real game or two before that changes.
. . .
• YES, YOU CAN BET on the Little League World Series. I’ve lamented this before, but only because it’s grotesque and anyone who does it deserves a good public shaming. Tsk, tsk, people.
. . .
• ACCORDING TO STUBHUB, tickets to the Sky-Fever game Aug. 30 at Wintrust Arena are starting at around $215. That’s a hot one. And in the ‘‘not’’ department: Northwestern employees are being hit up by the school to buy discounted tickets to the Wildcats’ Sept. 14 football game against Eastern Illinois at the temporary 12,000-seat Martin Stadium. An email to staffers referred to a ‘‘more-the-merrier event.’’ If you can’t put 12,000 rear ends in the seats in September, there might not be much merriment.
. . .
• THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF is tweaking its selection protocol for the upcoming season by removing conference-championship designations as selection criteria when figuring out tiebreakers between comparable teams. The four highest-ranked conference champs still will be seeded first through fourth and receive first-round byes, but winning a league won’t mean much as far as the rest of the 12-team field. Hey, whatever best serves the Big Ten’s and SEC’s needs, right?
. . .
• JAVY BAEZ RETURNS to Wrigley with the Tigers on Tuesday, his first game back at his old stomping grounds. No doubt, Cubs fans will welcome him warmly. Baez probably could use an ovation or two because his post-Cubs performance has been sorely disappointing and his 2024 season — with a .185 average and meager power numbers — has been a nightmare. Who’d have thunk it?
‘‘He was uber-talented and super-talented,’’ Counsell said. ‘‘Yeah, I’m surprised.’’
Might it have gone differently for Baez had he and the Cubs agreed to a long-term deal going into 2021? I’ll always wonder.
Wicks threw a bullpen session Sunday at Wrigley Field on his way to meet Triple-A Iowa in Toledo.
“I was 23 when I debuted there,” Pearson said. “I was just a young guy. [I’ve] matured, and now I’m coming over here [to the Cubs] with a little more experience.”