PHOENIX – The Cubs had the bases loaded in the third inning with no outs and their best hitter at the plate. It was a prime opportunity to wipe out the Diamondbacks’ lead and take control of the game.
Diamondbacks starter Ryne Nelson committed a pitch clock violation to start Cody Bellinger’s at-bat. Even better.
Then, Bellinger chopped an outside fastball to the right side of the infield, grounding into a double play. Ian Happ scored from third, but that was the only run the Cubs pushed across the plate that inning.
“Saw it well out of the hand,” Bellinger said, “just didn’t put my A swing on it.”
The Cubs offense continued to slump in a 6-2 loss to the Diamondbacks on Sunday. The loss completed a three-game sweep in Arizona. It marked the first time the Cubs have been swept in a series since June 27-29 against the Phillies. The Cubs lost six of seven games against the Diamondbacks this season.
Arizona (79-72) passed the Cubs in the NL Central Wild Card race with their victory Sunday, seizing the second slot. Right behind them, the Cubs (78-27) are tied with the Marlins in the third spot, but Miami owns the tiebreaker.
“We all have to understand the amazing baseball we played to even put us in this position,” Bellinger said. “Obviously it hasn’t been going our way past a week and a half, but understanding we’re the same team that was balling for for a month and a half.”
The Cubs have had a Top-4 run-scoring offense in the second half, entering Sunday with 337 runs since the All-Star break. But as they’ve lost three series in a row, two against the Diamondbacks and one in Colorado, the offense has hit a skid.
Going into Sunday, the Cubs had scored just 31 runs since Sept. 7. Only the Angels and A’s scored less in that span, and Oakland had one fewer game than Chicago.
They’ve been a middle-of-the-pack offense by batting average over the past week and a half. But they haven’t consistently capitalized in big moments. The Cubs have gone 0-for-8 with the bases loaded over the past three series, according to FanGraphs.
“We have to lock in, grind a little bit harder in those moments, not get too anxious,” manager David Ross said of missed opportunities on offense this weekend. “We had a lot of traffic; the at-bats are not bad. We just get in those moments and take the pressure off the pitcher pretty quickly.”
Against Nelson, a rookie, the Cubs scored two runs in 3 ⅓ innings. They were already trailing by three runs when Dansby Swanson led off the second inning with a double down the left field line. Mike Tauchman drove him in with a line drive single up the middle.
Then, in the third inning, they only got one run out of loading the bases with no outs. They didn’t score again in the game.
Cubs starter Jordan Wicks has set such a high bar for himself that his start Sunday was the worst of his young career. The 4 ⅓ innings he threw on Sunday made for his shortest start, and the three runs he allowed were the most he’d surrendered in a game since debuting three weeks ago.
Still, the Cubs should be able to put up more than two runs, especially against the back of the Diamondbacks’ rotation and a bullpen that they’ve seen plenty of in the past couple weeks.
As the scoring margin grew, the Cubs gave their high-leverage arms a rest after a 13-inning game the night before.
“We’ve been doing a good job having each other’s backs, even when it hasn’t been going our way,” Bellinger said. “And so we’re just going to continue leaning on each other.”