They\u2019ve lost eight and split one with the Pirates and have gone a full month without winning a series.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the formula to follow if you want to go from a 3\u0153-game lead in your division to the 7\u0153 games they trail the Brewers by while sharing third place with the Pirates in the National League Central.<\/p>\n
There were other losses for the Cubs on Sunday, too. Starting pitcher Jameson Taillon left one batter into the second inning with a strained left hamstring. He will have an MRI exam Monday; the Cubs can only hope the injury will not be as severe as the one that sidelined Shota Imanaga for seven weeks last season.<\/p>\n
Energetic rookie Kevin Alcantara lost a bit of innocence when he was doubled off third on a broken-bat line drive by Bregman to Giants first baseman Rafael Devers in the eighth inning. Alcantara represented the go-ahead run in a game kept tight by the spectacular relief pitching of Javier Assad, who replaced Taillon and held the Giants to one hit in 6\u201e scoreless innings.<\/p>\n
Assad left to a standing ovation from the crowd of 36,317, unaccustomed to watching baseball at such a late hour on a Sunday night, thanks to NBC and its \u2018\u2018Sunday Night Baseball\u2019\u2019 broadcast.<\/p>\n
Surely, Alcantara was anticipating big cheers when he broke for the plate on Bregman\u2019s liner, but he committed a cardinal baseball sin: make sure the ball has gotten through the infield before you think about advancing.<\/p>\n
Alcantara was easily doubled up; the Cubs went from first-and-third with no outs in a 1-1 game to an empty hand when Ian Happ struck out to end the inning.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo excuse to not be able to do what I\u2019m supposed to do there,\u2019\u2019 Alcantara said.<\/p>\n
Matt Chapman\u2019s ground-ball single through an undefended right side easily scored ghost runner Jonah Cox in the 10th, and with ghost runner Pete Crow-Armstrong only 90 feet away after stealing third with one out, Michael Busch and Bregman popped to short to end the game.<\/p>\n
Afterward, Bregman patiently sat in front of his locker, waiting for his inquisitors. He is 2-for-24 after an 11-game hitting streak had raised hopes that he was breaking out of what has been a seasonlong slide. He has a .669 OPS and five homers and has driven in only 19 runs in 65 games.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started to feel like today was the best I\u2019ve felt mechanically,\u201d he said, \u201cbut obviously I\u2019ve been terrible this year, honestly, offensively.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo there\u2019s only one way to get out of it, and that\u2019s head-on. I\u2019ve been in this spot many times in my career where you go through spells where you\u2019re not hitting, and I\u2019ve learned that from the first 30 at-bats in my career, when I went 1-for-32, that there\u2019s only one way to go, and that\u2019s straight through it.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019ve just been bad, and I need to correct a lot mechanically. I thought some of the things we looked at pregame were very, very insightful, and we kind of diagnosed everything that has been going on. Now it\u2019s execution time, and I haven\u2019t executed at all this year. I\u2019ve been terrible with runners in scoring position.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018There have been passive at-bats; there have been overly aggressive at-bats. There needs to be some consistency, and I need to be better, and I will be better, and I\u2019m gonna get after it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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