Cubs Drop Their First Home Series of Season
The Chicago Cubs dropped just their second series of the season as they fell to the Philadelphia Phillies in the rubber match on Sunday night at Wrigley Field, 3-1 in 10 innings. This concludes a week-long, eight-game homestand in which Chicago went a respectable 5-3 after a series win over Arizona and a two-game sweep of the Dodgers, but the last two games against the Phillies will undoubtedly leave a sour taste as the club travels to Pittsburgh. The frustrating thing for manager Craig Counsell is that it seems to be the same recurring issues that cause this team to lose close games. With that in mind, let's evaluate the Cubs’ first home series loss of the season.
The Offense Can’t Always Bail Out Pitching
The calling card for the 2025 Cubs to this point has been their ability to win the high-scoring thrillers. However, there is a clear concern for this team when it comes to the opposite end of the spectrum. If the offense is getting held in check by the opposing pitcher, as we saw on Sunday night by Phillies star Aaron Nola, can the Cubs’ pitching and defense raise their level of play in order for the Cubs to still win games? To this point, there is no way to justifiably answer that with an emphatic yes. This is obviously something that Cubs management is aware of, but one would have to think the sense of urgency to fix some of those glaring holes is going to have to be higher than expected, given the bullpen struggles and starting pitching injuries. The Phillies’ pitching did a really great job all weekend, shutting down one of the hottest offenses in baseball as the Cubs only scored nine runs in the three games combined. This is the type of pitching the Cubs have to expect to face late in the season, and their pitching staff needs to be up to the challenge if this team wants to make some real noise late into October.
Dansby Swanson Needs to Get Going
This is not supposed to be viewed as a knock on Dansby Swanson; in fact, I view it as the opposite. The Cubs need him as one of the prominent figures on their roster to be one of the catalysts on offense. There is never any doubt about his defensive abilities at shortstop, but his offensive slump to start the season is something that can not continue for this offense to produce at its highest potential. Swanson has the lowest batting average, .188, and on-base percentage, .240, among the everyday starters. With how effective the Cubs’ offense has been this season, it is hard to imagine how much better they would be if Swanson were hitting at just a league-average clip at this point. Swanson was in a lot of clutch spots this weekend, including a crucial at-bat in the 10th inning on Sunday night in which he flew out. He logged just one hit in 12 at-bats this weekend. With him hitting in the middle of this Cubs order consistently, there are going to be plenty more situations similar to the ones we saw play out this weekend, where Swanson will need to come up with a big hit in the clutch. His offensive production is incredibly crucial to this team’s long-term success, and right now, it is just not where it needs to be.
