The Cubs are one of a handful of National League teams near .500 who have realistic hopes of snagging a wild-card spot. But they have other things to worry about, not who’s surrounding them in the league’s cluttered standings.
“We haven’t really earned the right to look at other people too much,” second baseman Nico Hoerner said. “We’ve got things to take care of on our own end as far as playing good baseball, and the rest of it will work out from there. You’ve got to imagine a couple of those teams that are floating around .500 improve and either make moves or improve internally and play better baseball.
“We’re definitely struggling to be the best version of ourselves and one of them.”
Those struggles continued Sunday in a 5-2 loss to the Mets in front of 39,417 at Wrigley Field that capped off a 4-5 homestand. Javier Assad gave up back-to-back home runs in the third inning to Francisco Lindor and Brandon Nimmo and allowed four runs and seven hits in 4„ innings. Mark Vientos added an eighth-inning homer off Tyson Miller that landed above the center-field batter’s eye.
Meanwhile, the Cubs’ offense did little against Mets starter Luis Severino. The Cubs’ best chance against Severino, who struck out 10, came in the sixth, when Miguel Amaya singled and Hoerner was hit by a pitch to begin the inning. But Severino fanned Michael Busch and Cody Bellinger before Seiya Suzuki flew out to center to end the threat.
Christopher Morel homered for a second straight day, hitting a two-run shot in the seventh off reliever Dedniel Nunez to close the Cubs’ deficit to 4-2. That would be the closest the Cubs got, even though Mets closer Edwin Diaz was ejected before throwing a pitch in the ninth for having too much rosin, sweat and dirt on his pitching hand. Drew Smith replaced Diaz and got the first two outs before Jake Diekman retired pinch hitter Patrick Wisdom to end the game.
The Cubs fell to four games below .500 but haven’t dropped further than five under this year. They’ve also avoided long losing streaks, never coming up short in more than five straight.
“I’m not looking for consolation prizes,” manager Craig Counsell said. “That stat is a result of quality starting pitching because that’s the one thing that we have gotten, very consistent starting pitching, and that will prevent that.”
It’s good that the Cubs haven’t had long skids, but they also haven’t gone on long winning streaks. Their season high is five games, and that run ended April 5.
“We certainly didn’t gain any ground here and do anything to get us moving forward,” Counsell said of the homestand. “It’s going to take better than 4-5, no question about it. Try to start it [Monday against the Giants].”
The first half of the season ends Wednesday, when the Cubs face San Francisco in their 81st game. Counsell wasn’t planning to use the halfway point as some kind of benchmark.
“We can pick starting points, end points, homestands, road trips, weekdays, weekends, whatever,’’ Counsell said. ‘‘You can find starting and stop points all the way through the season. Boring answer, cliché answer, but you’ve got to show up every day and earn it and fight for it and don’t give in when it’s not going your way, which it will during the season. Not give into it. That’s our job, and then you catch a little wind and sail, and you keep going.”
If they do that consistently, the Cubs can separate themselves from the middle of the pack and challenge for a higher seed or even an NL Central title. But it’s unclear whether this squad is capable.
“When you want to feel like a good team and a playoff team, we’ve got to be better than this,” Counsell said. “No question about it.”
