As Kyle Schwarber walked over to the roped-off fan area up the third-base line, the almost orderly line of young fans bunched into a mass of waving hands extending baseballs, cards, hats and pens toward the former Cub.
The balance of jerseys skewed toward the Cubs, who have subjected their fans to a floundering first half. So Schwarber and the Phillies coming to town with the best record in the majors only poured salt in the wound, as the Cubs fell 6-4 on Tuesday.
This was the same Schwarber who the Cubs non-tendered in December 2020, after he hit .188 in the pandemic-shortened season, a precursor to the trade deadline teardown that was to come.
“Starting pitching has been excellent,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said of the Phillies before the game. “[Zack] Wheeler and [Aaron] Nola obviously lead the group, but [Cristopher] Sanchez and [Ranger] Suarez have been really, really good. And that's created a lot of consistency for them. Solid bullpen. Their offense – clearly, they're missing a couple guys right now – but a very damage-based offense.”
Schwarber, sidelined by a strained left groin, wasn’t playing. Neither were Bryce Harper (strained left hamstring) or J.T. Realmuto (right knee surgery). Even significantly haggard, the Phillies were the more formidable offense, powered largely by Trea Turner, who hit a pair of home runs off Cubs starter Hayden Wesneski.
On the mound for the Phillies was rookie Michael Mercado, making his first major-league start. The Cubs only managed two hits against him in five innings. Even Seiya Suzuki’s three-run home run in the ninth inning wasn’t enough to pull the team back into the game.
The Cubs ended the night eight games below .500 (39-47), a new season low.
“Disappointing, for sure,” said Cody Bellinger, who went 2-for-4 with an RBI double. “We all had high expectations [going into the season,] andI think overall we still do. Today I thought we put some good swings on the ball, and just some bad breaks, it looked like. But just got to keep on fighting.”
This week’s series pits against each other two teams on staggered timelines, built with different philosophies.
“It’s about adding to wins, essentially,” Counsell said of team-building. “You’ve got to have a bunch of players that add to wins. I don't know if there's one way to do it. But you need a lot of those players.”
Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer zeroed in on defense, and especially up-the-middle defense, to begin building his “next great Cubs team.”
The 2016 championship squad he’d assembled with his predecessor Theo Epstein served as partial proof of concept. That was one of the best defensive teams the Cubs have ever put on the field. That group, however, could also hit.
Meanwhile, these Cubs entered Tuesday just barely out of MLB’s bottom 10 in runs scored (348). And their defense this season has hardly been a strength. Highlight-reel plays have been offset by cringe-worthy gaffes.
On the other side are the Phillies, who doubled down on offense to pave their way to a 2022 postseason run, their first in 11 years, and a National League pennant. At the time, some in baseball openly wondered whether the Phillies’ success was sustainable. But now, they’ve played in back-to-back NL Championship Series and only strengthened their pitching.
They've proven their free-agent spending was for more than one shot at a championship.
The Cubs weren’t expected to go to the World Series this year, but the first half of the season has called into question the strength of the foundation. And wading into the second half, wins have remained hard to come by.
“It's obviously not going our way for these past couple of months,” Suzuki said through interpreter Toy Matsushita. “And it's been tough. But the fan base has been still with us, they come into the stadium every day to support us. And we’ve got to work harder for them, so that's what we're going to continue to do.”
