Cubs offense – A packed Wrigley Field crowd cheered through the seventh-inning stretch, but the Cubs’ bats went quiet again—losing 3-0 to the Astros for their seventh straight defeat. Manager Craig Counsell changed the lineup, yet the offense managed just three hits, includi
The cheers started early and were loud enough to shake the rafters.
When Anthony Rizzo was introduced to sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” and shown on the Wrigley Field video board. Saturday’s season-high crowd of 40. 017 erupted. Rizzo was joined by two cancer patients as part of the team’s Cubs for a Cure fundraiser. turning the day into something people could hold onto—right up until the seventh-inning stretch ended.
After that break, the Cubs offense had another familiar problem: it couldn’t get going. What followed was not a dramatic rally or a late burst of life. Instead, the Astros stayed in control and the Cubs fell 3-0, dropping their seventh straight game.
There was also some scattered, noticeable booing the rest of the day.
Manager Craig Counsell shook up the lineup in an attempt to change the look at the plate. He sat struggling left fielder Ian Happ in favor of Michael Conforto. He promoted center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong to leadoff and slotted second baseman Nico Hoerner in the fourth spot.
None of it worked.
The Cubs collected only three hits and were held without any official at-bats with runners in scoring position. The closest they came against Houston starter Kai-Wei Teng and three relievers came in the third inning. The Cubs had runners on first and third with two outs. but Crow-Armstrong was thrown out trying to steal second. ending the inning.
The inning included two of the Cubs’ hits. The first came when Dansby Swanson hit a two-out pop-up that was misplayed by Astros second baseman Braden Shewmake. If not for that miscue, the Cubs likely would have flirted with being no-hit until Alex Bregman’s ninth-inning single.
Counsell had said the lineup shift was meant to give his hitters “a different look.” The most noticeable alteration was Happ, an unofficial captain who entered the day 1 for his last 15 and had struck out 34 times in May.
“This is the job. Hitting is hard,” Counsell said. “For everybody, it’s not your first slump. You stick to things that have gotten you out of them, you stick to things that have made you good. You keep trying to reinforce that. The challenge is to stay with that stuff when you’re not getting results.”.
Happ wasn’t the only thing changing. But the offense kept stalling in the same place. A team that has multiple 10-game winning streaks now finds itself stuck in a slump where it has scored two runs or fewer nine times over the last 13 games.
The Cubs have fallen behind the Brewers again despite having one of the biggest payrolls in the sport. and their skid is starting to show up in the stands. Even with the atmosphere at Wrigley Field offering moments of joy—like the fundraiser that brought Rizzo center stage—this kind of silence from the lineup leaves paying customers and observers restless.
Yes, the season is long. But the Cubs are going through a lull in a season that has already felt like a roller-coaster.
Crow-Armstrong tried to frame it as something the team has to endure rather than something it can afford to fear.
“This team’s too good to let this go on very much longer,” he said. “We just show up, do the work and stuff’s bound to turn around.”
Counsell offered a similar message, but with the blunt honesty of someone who’s watched the same slow starts play out too many times.
“We’re going to come out of this. It’s going to be fine,” Counsell said. “We’re a good baseball team. It’s all going to happen, but while you go through it you’ve got to sit in some discomfort with it. That doesn’t feel good.”
Chicago Cubs Wrigley Field Astros Craig Counsell Anthony Rizzo Ian Happ Pete Crow-Armstrong Nico Hoerner Michael Conforto Dansby Swanson Kai-Wei Teng Braden Shewmake Alex Bregman Cubs for a Cure