While they provided the fans with some walk-off fun in a 7-6 win<\/a> over the A\u2019s last Tuesday and a 3-2 win<\/a> over the Giants on Saturday, the Cubs continued to play frustrating baseball in the four losses to teams that are a combined 15 games under .500.<\/p>\n As the Cubs embark on a six-game road trip against the Rockies (24-42) and Giants (27-39), here are three takeaways from a homestand that did them few favors.<\/p>\n 1. It\u2019s open season on Alex Bregman. Critics on the internet have been blasting Cubs third baseman Alex Bregman<\/a>, who is in the first stages of a five-year, $175 million no-trade, no-opt-out contract.<\/p>\n Of course, there is the usual bile spewed, saying he should be cut, traded, benched, fired or sent to the minors with a fake injury. Some of the printable insults include \u201cworthless\u201d and \u201cpiece of garbage.\u201d<\/p>\n There is one other person who is insulting Bregman\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n Alex Bregman himself.<\/p>\n After Sunday night\u2019s loss, he let himself have it.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been terrible and I need to play better,\u201d he said. \u201cOffensively, it\u2019s been awful.\u201d<\/p>\n The numbers back up his critique.<\/p>\n He is hitting .243, which is a couple of ticks better than the team\u2019s overall average of .239. His on-base percentage is .327, his slugging percentage is .362 for a .669 OPS, well under his career .838.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve failed many times in this game and I\u2019ve struggled before,\u201d Bregman said. \u201cI started slow before. I started fast before. When you are struggling, there is only one way forward and that\u2019s straight, head-on through it.<\/p>\n \u201cYou get after it in your work and it comes down to executing in the game and I haven\u2019t executed all year.\u201d<\/p>\n Through the team\u2019s first 66 games, Bregman is on pace for a 12-home run, 47-RBI season and his average with runners in scoring position is .173 in 75 at-bats.<\/p>\n \u201cWith runners in scoring position, I\u2019ve been god-awful,\u201d Bregman said. \u201cI need to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that if he were better over the last several games, the Cubs would have won a majority of them.<\/p>\n \u201cThey brought me here to play good baseball and I haven\u2019t played good baseball,\u201d the former Houston and Boston standout said. \u201cI need to figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n He said that his mechanics are off, he is late on fastballs and has been \u201cdisconnected and too separated\u201d with his swing.<\/p>\n Cubs fans have been booing the team and he feels he is one of the reasons for the hostility.<\/p>\n \u201cThose could be directed at me because I haven\u2019t come through with runners in scoring position,\u201d Bregman said. \u201cI feel like I have plenty of chances. Guys are getting on base. I feel like we have traffic out there all the time. It\u2019s time to start coming through.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s past due, actually.\u201d<\/p>\n 2. Matthew Boyd\u2019s comeback could be crucial. The numbers were horrible.\u00a0But no one seems to care about the numbers.<\/p>\n Rehabbing Matthew Boyd (left meniscus injury) made a start for Triple-A Iowa on Saturday and gave up five runs on seven hits \u2014 including three home runs \u2014 in five innings against Toledo in a 7-5 victory in Des Moines.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt great,\u201d Boyd told the Tribune on Sunday. \u201cI gave up a few long balls. Sometimes that happens in that park. It\u2019s the nature of the game.<\/p>\n \u201cYou go out there and attack it and I made a few mistakes and they hit them for homers.\u201d<\/p>\n The numbers weren\u2019t the key. His health is.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s healthy and everything\u2019s good,\u201d Cubs manager Craig Counsell said of Boyd. \u201cHe got to the 80-pitch mark, which is a good thing. I think we\u2019re in a pretty good place where he will be a regular starter. He\u2019ll be active on this road trip at some point.\u201d<\/p>\n With Jameson Taillon suffering a strained left hamstring<\/a> in Sunday\u2019s 2-1, 10-inning loss to the Giants, Boyd could slip back into the rotation.<\/p>\n The left-handed Boyd is 2-1 with a 6.00 ERA in five starts, but hopes to return to his 2025 form when he was 14-8 with a 3.21 ERA.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m itching to get back,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m excited to do my part to help this ballclub win and get to where we want to go in October.\u201d<\/p>\n Returning to Triple-A Iowa will be outfielder Kevin Alc\u00e1ntara, reported Tommy Birch<\/a> of the Des Moines Register. Alc\u00e1ntara had a baserunning gaffe<\/a> as a pinch runner in the eighth inning of Sunday\u2019s loss that proved costly.<\/p>\n 3. Ryan Rolison is on a roll. Left-handed middle reliever Ryan Rolison picked up both wins in the homestand and is tied with starter Colin Rea for the team lead with five victories.<\/p>\n Rolison, 28, returns to Colorado, where he was 1-0 with a 7.02 ERA in 31 games for the Rockies last year.<\/p>\n This year, his ERA is shaved down to 2.49 and he is in the right place at the right time for wins.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is hopefully an organizational success story,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cSometimes you get guys at the right time in their careers.<\/p>\n \u201cOur pitching staff has done a nice job helping him develop and giving him some confidence. We\u2019ve got a confident pitcher right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Chicago Tribune.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This was supposed to be the stretch for the Chicago Cubs to roll up their sleeves and feast…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":854923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[2730,960,1271,1816,5386,1818,5439,258853,5436,1822,212421],"class_list":["post-854922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-alex-bregman","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-craig-counsell","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-jameson-taillon","tag-kevin-alcantara","tag-matthew-boyd","tag-mlb-baseball","tag-ryan-rolison"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116719847346440921","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/854923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"Chicago](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CTC-L-cubs-athletics036_263255935.jpg\")
Chicago Cubs third baseman Alex Bregman swings and misses as he strikes out in the ninth inning of a game against the Athletics at Wrigley Field in Chicago on June 2, 2026. (Chris Sweda\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n
\n![\"Chicago](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CTC-CUBS-DBACKS-12_262257564.jpg\")
Chicago Cubs pitcher Matthew Boyd pitches in the third inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Wrigley Field on May 3, 2026. (Eileen T. Meslar\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n
\n![\"Chicago](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CTC-L-cubs-giants015_263407085.jpg\")
Chicago Cubs relief pitcher Ryan Rolison delivers to the San Francisco Giants in the 10th inning of a game at Wrigley Field in Chicago on June 6, 2026. (Chris Sweda\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n