Winning or losing, it’s never one thing that’s going right or wrong. While the Cubs were piling up wins in the second half of April and early May, they were pitching well and scoring in bunches. In their current abysmal stretch that goes back to the road series against the Rangers, the losses have come via a shaky, injury-riddled pitching staff and an offense that’s gone collectively quiet.
In an effort to end the skid Cubs manager Craig Counsell shook up his lineup on Saturday, and the Cubs still lost, 3-0. On Sunday, he stuck with a very similar group on offense and they rewarded him with five runs, but starting pitcher Shota Imanaga gave up three home runs and the Cubs lost their eighth in a row, by a score of 8-5.
“On the pitching side, we’ve got to prevent homers better,” Counsell said. “If you give up the number of homers we’re giving up, that’s a problem. When the disparity is that much, it’s not wind blowing out [or facing] an offensive juggernaut. That hasn’t been the case.
“It’s tough to win games when you’re giving up the number of homers we’re giving up.”
Before Sunday’s game, Counsell stressed the importance of Imanaga’s splitter, a pitch he’s gotten a nearly 43% whiff rate on this season — that’s up from 32% in 2025, and early on, he was getting swings and misses.
The first two runs Imanaga surrendered were solo shots off of his four-seam fastball, but the Astros took the lead in the fifth inning when Christian Walker pounced on a splitter that Imanaga left in the heart of the strike zone. Walker’s three-run shot put the Astros ahead, and the Cubs were never able to recover.
“In the beginning, it felt good,” Imanaga said via team interpreter Edwin Stanberry of his splitter. “But in the later innings, I felt like the splitters that were trying to go down below the zone, they were left up in the strike zone.
“The best ones are the ones that start at the bottom of the zone and drop to the hitter’s knees. That’s something I need to work on.”
Imanaga’s home run rate jumped in 2025, especially in the second half of the season, and his most recent outings seem to be pointing toward that being more than just a bad stretch. Since May 7, his ERA has risen from 2.28 to 4.04, and he’s given up seven home runs in his last four starts.
“Right now they’re getting into hitters’ counts, and they’re putting good swings on locations where they can hit the ball well,” Imanaga said. “I need to improve on that, and I think the next outing, even if they do put a good swing on it, trying to induce ground balls.”
The Cubs will need better from Imanaga if they’re going to keep this eight-game skid from becoming the kind of stretch that spoiled the promising 1985 season. That year, the Cubs were coming off of a deep postseason run in ’84 that had fans and that team optimistic going into the new season. They started off hot but injuries to the — you guessed it — pitching staff played a role in a 13-game losing streak that June that dashed those early season hopes for good.
There are similarities to this Cubs team just over four decades later. Before Sunday’s loss, Edward Cabrera, who had to leave his Wednesday start against the Brewers early because of a blister on his right middle finger, threw a bullpen session in hopes that his finger would feel good enough to make a Tuesday start in Pittsburgh.
But just before first pitch Sunday, the team announced that Cabrera was headed for the 15-day injured list and Jordan Wicks had been recalled from Triple-A Iowa. Though Matt Boyd is progressing nicely toward making a quick return from surgery to the meniscus in his left knee, the Cubs’ pitching staff doesn’t have much more depth to keep trying to absorb these losses.
“We’ve got guys returning in short order here, so we have to withstand that,” Counsell said of losing Cabrera from his rotation. “We’re certainly in a stretch now that we’ve got to withstand until we’ve got two guys coming back in two, three-ish weeks.”
That puts added pressure on the Cubs offense, the same group that has needed a lineup shuffle the past two games in order to try and shake off a collective funk. The shakeup to the offense has included moving guys around in the batting order, along with giving veterans days off.
Ian Happ got two days off in a row. Counsell said he told the Cubs left fielder to not even touch a bat on Saturday and take the day off completely, and although Happ was out of Sunday’s lineup too, he resumed normal pregame activities. Counsell said the plan is to get Happ back in the lineup on Monday in Pittsburgh.
On Sunday, shortstop Dansby Swanson was given a day off, and Nico Hoerner moved over from second base, which gave rookie Pedro Ramirez his first start. Ramirez made his major league debut on Saturday, grounding out in a pinch-hit appearance, but on Sunday he came through with a game-tying RBI double in the second inning and got on base via walk in the fourth.
But moves like those — inserting a rookie and moving around the spots in the order — are only going to do so much to lift the Cubs out of the mire they’re in. When the offense is slumping collectively, they need multiple guys to starting clicking at the plate.
The Cubs showed some promise in that regard on Sunday. They put together a three-run frame in the second, and Michael Busch’s two-run homer got them within two runs in the seventh inning, but there were still too many other missed opportunities.
“I feel like it starts with me,” third baseman Alex Bregman said. “Too many empty plate appearances.”
Bregman is hitting .214 in his last seven games, but again, he’s hardly alone. The Cubs losing eight games in a row isn’t the product of one player’s struggles.
“Obviously, just not playing good baseball,” Bregman said. “It comes down to execution. We’ve been out-executed the last eight days in a row.”
