Fresh off another gut-punch loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday, the first time all year his team had dropped three series in a row, Craig Counsell tried to get the Chicago Cubs to block out the noise and focus on the little things. Don't worry about the standings, don't worry about yesterday, just take care of the things you can control that lead to winning baseball.
"There's a tendency to make everything sound worse than it is in our game," Counsell told ESPN's Jesse Rogers on Friday. "Sticking to the things that get you results and being OK it might not happen at that exact time you want it to is the right way to be your best self. I think we have to be consistent with that. For us to focus on results is harmful, so you focus on things that contribute to us being good."
A reasonable-enough message to try and get your team back on track when its fan base is nearing a full-on revolt. Unfortunately for Counsell, the Cubs responded by going out on Friday and ... ignoring his advice completely. With Chicago trailing by a run in the bottom of the ninth inning, Pete Crow-Armstrong appeared to have second base stolen, putting the tying run in scoring position with nobody out. That is, until he slid way past the bag and was easily tagged out:
PCA had this base stolen EASILY representing the tying run in the ninth, but he overslid way too far and got tagged out pic.twitter.com/FPIju1a9XD
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) August 15, 2025
From there, the Cubs went down in order, and another exasperating loss was in the books. The Cubs are now a whopping 8.5 games back of the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central, and just 4.5 games clear of the Cincinnati Reds in the race for a playoff spot. Things are officially dire, if they weren't already. But the most concerning thing for Chicago right now is that their high-priced manager doesn't appear to have a way of reaching his team.
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Cubs responded to Craig Counsell's call in the worst way imaginable
Granted, Counsell can't go out there and play the game for his players. Crow-Armstrong sliding past the bag is on him, first and foremost. If Kyle Tucker, Ian Happ and other big names don't start hitting up to their reputations, all of this is moot. But it doesn't seem like a great sign that, no matter what buttons Counsell tries to push in the clubhouse, nothing is working.
One of the primary roles of a manager is to set the tone, mentally and emotionally, on a daily basis. This is a long, grueling season, and adversity is bound to strike along the way. But Counsell doesn't appear to have a way of getting his team to refocus, to dig deep and recommit to playing clean baseball. Maybe the answer is to show a bit more public fire, the way his replacement in Milwaukee, Pat Murphy, is all too fond of doing. Whatever the case, though, Counsell can appeal to "sticking to the things that get you results" all he wants; unless he has a way of helping actualize that on the field, none of it matters.