Cubs' ninth straight loss matches 2017 Dodgers for dubious mark - ESPN

PITTSBURGH — The Chicago Cubs spent the first six weeks of the season threatening to run away with the NL Central.

A pair of 10-game winning streaks will do that.

It's taken just over two weeks for a big chunk of all that hard work to disappear.

A skid that earned the Cubs a share of some unwanted big league history will do that.

Chicago's 2-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday marked its ninth straight defeat, joining the 2017 Los Angeles Dodgers as the only two teams in the expansion era to have multiple 10-game winning streaks and a nine-game skid in the same season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

«We got to play better,» manager Craig Counsell said after watching his team lose for the 13th time in 15 games.

«We've got to swing the bats better. We've got to pitch better. We need more guys contributing to good stuff, and as a coaching staff we've got to figure out a way to get the players there.»

The Cubs' current slide is the franchise's longest since a 10-game winless drought in 2022. Back then, the franchise was firmly in a rebuilding phase. Expectations are much higher nowadays, and while the Cubs still sit somewhat comfortably over .500 at 29-25, that's just good enough for third in a division where all five teams started Memorial Day over .500.

It's hardly time to panic. Yet fresh off a winless six-game homestand that began with getting swept by the NL Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers and ended with three losses to the mediocre Houston Astros, it looked like more of the same against the improved Pirates.

Michael Busch provided the only offense with a solo home run in the fifth that tied the game. The Cubs managed just five other hits the rest of the way, going 0 for 2 with runners in scoring