ATLANTA — An all-too-familiar scene from the last two months played out again Monday night at Truist Park.
The Chicago Cubs have shown one- or two-game blips of the offense, channeling the version that led the majors in runs scored the first half of the season. And then there are nights like Monday when the Cubs, facing Atlanta Braves right-hander Bryce Elder and his 5.54 ERA, get nothing going. For the second time in a week, Elder kept throwing up zeroes.
The Cubs meagerly managed just one run and four hits in their 4-1 loss to Atlanta. Left-hander Shota Imanaga gave up three runs, all in the first inning, and struck out four without walking a batter in six innings.
“There’s no doubt that we have the pieces and talent and guys in the room to put up a lot of runs on any given night and that consistency, it doesn’t come from a team meeting and the whole team committing to one thing,” second baseman Nico Hoerner said. “We do have different skill sets, but there is an intensity and competitiveness that we all feed off each other when it’s rolling and we have a chance to do that tomorrow.”
Elder, who allowed just one earned run in 13 1/3 innings in back-to-back starts against the Cubs, has a 5.85 ERA in his other 23 starts this year.
Asked whether there is a common theme he’s seeing in his team’s at-bats, manager Craig Counsell simply replied, “Outs.”
Hoerner’s double stood as their only extra-base hit of the night, while Matt Shaw’s sacrifice fly in the seventh scored their run.
“We’ve got very good hitters that we’ve got to get back on track, and they will, they will,” Counsell said. “But it’s time to do it.”
Kyle Tucker did not play for a fifth consecutive game because of his lingering calf tightness, though Counsell sounded encouraged pregame by Tucker’s running and agility work that day. The Cubs are starting to run out of time to get the offense locked in and secure a playoff spot.
Imanaga’s consistency has been a staple of his success over nearly two seasons with the Cubs.
The Cubs have come to expect steadiness from the left-hander. He’s been a quality start machine, recording 30 through 50 big-league starts, including 12 of 13 since returning from the injured list in late June. The Braves’ aggressiveness in the first inning quickly challenged Imanaga’s stretch of effectiveness.
Despite retiring the first two batters he faced, the next four Braves tallied hits within the first three pitches of the at-bat to quickly put the Cubs in a three-run deficit. Imanaga watched a ball off Michael Harris II’s bat initially ruled a two-run home run down the left-field line that was overturned to a foul ball after the umpires conferred. Three pitches later, Imanaga forced Harris to ground out and allowed just one hit over the next five innings.
Imanaga credited his ability to bounce back after the first inning to a conversation with catcher Reese McGuire in the dugout and a mechanical tweak to adjust for the pitches he left in the middle of the plate.
Ultimately, the Cubs need more from their offense if they’re going to close out a spot in the postseason. For a team that’s scored more than four runs four times in their last 28 games, there is pressure on the Cubs’ lineup to quickly get on track with 18 games left in the regular season.
“I think a healthy amount of pressure can be a good thing too, I mean, we do have a lot at stake, and that’s part of what makes this game so exciting when things are going well as it is really hard, and we all benefit from each other playing well,” Hoerner said. “I don’t think pushing off pressure is necessarily the best way to handle things. I think it’s a chance to embrace it and play our best ball down the stretch here, wherever that puts us playoff-picture-wise.
“There’s no switch you can turn on for the postseason.”
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