Cubs Lay an Egg with 1-0 Loss to Brewers

Jameson Taillon gave it his all on the mound, but the Chicago Cubs' offense was laughably nonexistent in Tuesday's 1-0 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.

It's a pattern that the Cubs have fallen into too often. If one of their starters puts together a shutdown performance, the offense performs so poorly that it magnifies the ineptitude of the front office .

At this point, the Brewers have a big enough lead on the Cubs (10 games) in the National League Central standings that Chicago has seemingly crossed the point of no return and will now stumble through the rest of the season.

Tale of the Tape

With rain delaying the start of the game, the Cubs could sit back and relax a bit longer. Unfortunately, the offense took the whole night off as they put up a goose egg on the scoreboard, boring the Wrigley faithful.

In what could be his final start as a Cub, Jameson Taillon gave an inspiring performance against a division rival. Going 7.1 innings , the righty left it all on the mound for his offense to pick up.

But as is customary this season, the Cubs bats were quiet. Their only consistent attribute is failing with runners in scoring position.

Brewers starter Colin Rea entered Tuesday with a game plan that worked to perfection.

It's maddening just how bad the Cubs are on offense. Their lineup construction is inadequate, something everyone saw from a mile away except for the front office. They lack star power, instead relying on a cast of supporting characters that aren't clutch.

The North Siders had plenty of time to tack on runs but instead left the door wide open for the Brewers to take advantage late in the game. In the eighth inning, Brice Turang broke through with an RBI single to put Milwaukee up 1-0.

As usual, the Cubs did their best impression of a rally. David Bote was brought in with the bases loaded that same inning just to hit a pop-out. It was fun when he hit that grand slam in 2018, but that's ancient history at this point.

Dansby Swanson got on base in the ninth, but a 1-0 deficit seemingly felt insurmountable. Miles Mastrobuoni looked to be in a hurry during his at-bat before Pete Crow-Armstrong and Nico Hoerner were retired to end the game.

Takeaways

The Cubs have become so unlikeable because they lack any characteristics of a fun and competitive team. All of their misfortunes should fall directly on Jed Hoyer.

Despite having resources at his disposal, he's been unwilling to use them for legitimate roster improvements. A big-market team should be able to spend when it needs to, yet the Cubs prefer band-aids over real solutions.

Related: Why the Cubs Need to Move On from Jed Hoyer

Jameson Taillon put it all on the line on Tuesday. If he's traded before his next start, he'll have been a waste of a signing for a team that was never truly ready to compete at a high level.

What's On Tap Next?

The Cubs look to win the three-game series on Wednesday as Justin Steele takes the mound against Brewers' lefty Rob Zastryzny. First pitch is at 1:20 PM CT and the game will air on Marquee Sports Network.

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