Cardinals touch Kimbrel for 2 homers in 9th to hand Cubs crushing loss

Manager Joe Maddon can’t figure out who this Cubs team is.

Are they the team that won five straight games last week and scored 59 runs? Or are they the team that has lost five straight — four by a run — amid a slew of injuries, bad luck and frustration?

The answer, as is often the case, is somewhere in the middle. The Cubs are 57-59 since May 15. That’s who they are.

And one thing was certainly clearer after the ninth inning Saturday: This Cubs team doesn’t appear destined for its fifth straight playoff berth.

“To have your mind try to extrapolate what is going on here, it’s hard to pinpoint anything,” Maddon said. “A lot of guys are having really good seasons, and we’ve lost a lot of one-run games. Is that a lack of a hit? A lack of a pitch? I don’t know. Have the other teams gotten better? It’s so hard to really cull it down to one particular event or moment or thought.”

Craig Kimbrel allowed two home runs on the first two pitches in the ninth inning of a slow, painful 9-8 loss to the Cardinals at Wrigley Field. At 4 hours, 24 minutes, it was the longest nine-inning game in franchise history.

Those homers might have been the final two nails in the Cubs’ coffin. They’re six games behind the first-place Cardinals and three behind the Brewers with seven games to play.

Even if they were to win all seven, including four more against the Cardinals, it would still take some luck to make the postseason. The Cubs need the Brewers to lose games against the lowly Reds and last-place Rockies in the final week of the season.

“It sucks, you know?” Javy Baez said. “Obviously, it sucks. But we’re really close to two other teams. We just got to play our game and try to get hot in the last two series and see what happens when the last game is over.”

Baez returns

Baez returned from his broken left thumb to make the final out. He struck out with a runner on first.

He has been hitting off a tee since the middle of the week and was cleared to play before the game.

“It’s still bothering me a little bit, but I would do anything to help my team,” Baez said.

Castellanos doubles again

Nick Castellanos doubled in his first at-bat to take sole possession of 10th place all time on the single-season doubles list with 58.

Only Castellanos and Todd Helton have hit that many in a season since 1936.