There are definitely different factors that go into every season and yes every year isn’t the same, but for Chicago Cubs fans panicking here’s a weird coincidence that should give you hope.
So yeah, the Cubs have been playing garbage baseball for a week, the offense has been trash for two weeks and that was capped off Monday morning. The St. Louis Cardinals swept the Cubs, as Dexter Fowler hit a walk-off two-run home run in the 14th inning to beat his old team 4-3. It was the second straight walk-off win for the Cardinals.
Here’s the weird coincidence. Almost exactly one year ago the Cubs lost to the New York Yankees 5-4 in 18 innings. That loss also capped off a sweep of the Cubs and dropped them to 16-15.
After the sweep by the Cardinals this weekend the Cubs dropped to…16-15.
So, what’s the point of any of this? Well, despite the horrid play that we saw from the Cubs last year, remember they were 43-45 at the break, they still won 92 games and the division by six games.
As bad as it seems now, and it has been really bad, we know what these players are capable of. Obviously you don’t want another half season of underachieving, but not every year is going to be like 2016, when the Cubs led the division from wire-to-wire.
They can easily turn it around and that should be the expectation. Yet, just like last season the margin for error has been greatly reduced for the Cubs.
It only took 87 wins to be crowned division champions in 2017. So far at least, the Cardinals appear to be tougher competition than the overachieving Milwaukee Brewers from last year.
But again, it’s no time to panic. Yes, be pissed off, but there is a looooong way to go and the Cubs have proven to go on dominant second-half runs for three years in a row.
Step one, get back to scoring more than three runs again.
Luckily for the Cubs they face Jarlin Garcia tonight.
Wait.
He’s the ERA leader at 1.09, and only allowed one hit in six inning against the Cubs down in Miami.
Damnit.
*takes deep breath, repeats everything will be OK*
