Cubs' offensive rut continues despite hard contact: 'Going through it right now'

ST. LOUIS — The ball sticking in Cardinals center fielder Victor Scott III’s glove to end the eighth inning was a moment of deja vu.

In the Cubs’ 5-0 loss Friday at Busch Stadium, it marked the second time they had put two runners on to start an inning and ended it with a hard-contact out to center. Kyle Tucker was the unlucky hitter in the fifth, flying out to Garrett Hampson, who was playing center at the time.

Three innings later, it was Carson Kelly’s turn. With time running out for the Cubs to mount a comeback, he scorched a liner to center at 107.5 mph, according to Statcast. It was the Cubs’ hardest-hit ball in play of the day. Right to leather.

‘‘Frustrating,’’ Kelly said. ‘‘There’s no excuse for it. It sucks. But control what you can control.’’

The Cubs, who had scored the second-most runs in the majors at the All-Star break, entered play Friday ranked 23rd in runs in the three weeks since. Their lack of offense in the series opener wasn’t for lack of hard contact. But the fact that they put eight balls in play with exit velocities of at least 100 mph wasn’t much consolation when only two resulted in hits.

‘‘We didn’t score enough runs,’’ manager Craig Counsell said. ‘‘We didn’t win a game tonight. Move on to tomorrow. Being encouraged is not going to help anybody. We didn’t swing the bats poorly tonight, we just didn’t sequence the offense very well.’’

That poor sequencing meant they kept squandering run-scoring opportunities.

Another such instance played out in the fourth. Ian Happ was on third base with one out and Kelly at the plate. The Cardinals’ infield crept in to prioritize preserving what was a one-run lead at the time.

Kelly smoked a ground ball to third baseman Thomas Saggese, who dropped to his knees to keep the ball in front of him. Happ, who was caught a third of the way up the line, continued toward home, where Saggese’s throw beat him easily.

‘‘I think we’ve got the best lineup in baseball,’’ said starting pitcher Matthew Boyd, who allowed three runs in five innings. ‘‘Through 162 games, stretches of all sorts are going to come about. We know who we are as a ballclub. We know what we can do, what we’re capable of. We’re one of the best teams in the National League. And sometimes stuff happens.’’

Exacerbating the Cubs’ offensive woes were a couple of defensive flukes. In the second, a comebacker wedged itself in the webbing of Boyd’s glove. The extra time that it took for him to dig it out cost him not only a double play but also the out at first.

Still, he navigated heavy traffic to limit the Cardinals to one run in the inning.

Then in the fifth, with a Cardinals runner on first, first baseman Michael Busch fielded a bunt by Hampson and tried to throw out the lead runner at second. His throw was late and wide, and the Cardinals went on to score twice — on a sacrifice fly by Ivan Herrera and an RBI single by Willson Contreras.

The Cardinals extended their lead to five runs against reliever Ryan Brasier in the sixth, and the Cubs’ offense didn’t have a comeback in it.

‘‘We’re going through it right now,’’ Kelly said. ‘‘We’re just going to continue to keep putting good at-bats together. And hitting is contagious — I’ve said it before — on both sides. So all it takes is one of those flares or one of those hard-hit balls to get down, and something special can happen.’’