CHICAGO — Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell announced two more injuries before Monday’s 3-2 win over the San Diego Padres at Wrigley Field, looking like a man making a hostage video for his captors.

Matt Shaw and Ethan Roberts were the latest victims added to the growing list of Cubs players sidelined for parts of this wacky 2026 season, which started with a bang, fell down a manhole and recovered in time for the first summer heat wave.

With temperatures in the mid to upper 90s all week and the wind blowing out, Counsell’s next big obstacle will be trying to find the right combination of pitchers from a jumbled staff to keep the ball in the ballpark, and hoping that struggling veterans like Alex Bregman can use those summer winds to their advantage.

If you weren’t paying close attention to how the Cubs began the night with a respectable 46-38 record, you might be happy they were as good as they are as the All-Star break nears. Taking into account all the streaky hitting and the rash of pitching injuries, they should be well out of contention and looking at a summer sell-off next month.

This might be Counsell’s most challenging season as manager, though he won’t consider the possibility and isn’t interested in comparisons.

“I’m pretty sure they all are,” he said. “There are challenges in a major league season. We’ve had a high number of pitching injuries, yes. If it wasn’t that, it would be something else. That’s how baseball seasons work.”

Going back to spring training, when Cade Horton was still healthy and Bregman was still the designated savior, the Cubs were looking at another 90-plus win season and a chance to make some noise in the postseason. No one was predicting they’d be World Series-bound, but a 27-12 record to open the season, despite Horton going down and Bregman off to a poor offensive start, began a wave of optimism that perhaps they could hang with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Then it all came crashing down, with more injuries and continued struggles by Bregman, while Dansby Swanson and Pete Crow-Armstrong also failed to find a groove offensively.

Crow-Armstrong bottomed out during the City Series in mid-May with a viral incident involving a harassing White Sox fan but has been one of the game’s best hitters since. Crow-Armstrong said his confidence never wavered.

“I don’t need anybody to believe in me, although however many people are in this clubhouse every day, I have everyone behind me,” he said. “That’s all that I need.”

Crow-Armstrong seems to beat himself up at times, though he disagreed with the observation.

“Yeah, that’s your opinion,” he said. “I don’t think I get down on myself. I think I enjoy and appreciate being realistic with myself, and sometimes that comes off as being hard on myself. I show up every day and I get ready to play ball.”

Counsell said players are always harder on themselves than the fans are, and he doesn’t mind a show of emotion.

“You guys are getting the public version of it,” Counsell said. “Beating themselves up is happening before the public version comes out, that’s for sure. I always think that’s the last release of the steam valve, if that makes sense.”

Bregman has shown almost no public emotion during his difficult first half, which has been disappointing for him and the organization. He came into Monday hitting .163 with runners in scoring position and with a .335 slugging percentage. Against left-handers, he had one home run and seven RBIs in 78 at-bats.

He said Monday that he’s gone through streaks in his career and always comes out of a bad one. His goal is simple:

“Just be in a consistent spot to be able to hit the ball hard in the air,” he said. “Get back to swinging at pitches I want to hit, and not swinging at pitches outside of the strike zone.”

Counsell said players are constantly looking to drive the baseball, which is nothing new.

“And (with) Alex, it just hasn’t happened so far, or lately, especially,” he said. “That’s what he’s working on every single day, trying to get there. And we just have to continue that process.”

On Sunday, Bregman failed to go full speed on a grounder to short that was bobbled by Milwaukee Brewers shortstop Cooper Pratt, who was able to recover in time to throw Bregman out. It was irrelevant in the end, a 4-3 Cubs win, but it added to fans’ angst over his performance. TV analyst Jim Deshaies correctly pointed out the mistake on the Marquee broadcast.

Counsell wouldn’t blame Bregman on Sunday when asked about the play. Bregman explained his rationale before Monday’s game.

“I had 10 soft tissue injuries running down the first base line specifically,” he said. “So, it’s kind of some give and take. But at the same time, obviously I wish I had beat the throw.”

Bregman said it had nothing to do with frustration over his lack of hitting.

The Cubs need Bregman to pick it up if they’re going to contend, and can look at Swanson’s 15-RBI series in New York as an example of how quickly things can turn around. They also need Crow-Armstrong to continue his current hot streak, which has helped keep the Cubs above water.

“I think I’ve done a really good job this year of not focusing on any long stretch or buying into all this talk about winning streaks or losing streaks,” Crow-Armstrong said. “It’s just unnecessary and clouds my judgment. I just focus on day-to-day stuff, and that’s what has worked for me.”

Counsell was blunt in saying he didn’t think there would be any immediate help on the trade front from President Jed Hoyer, so figuring out the pitching puzzle will be a daily item on his to-do list.

Hoyer brought Counsell to Chicago three years ago because of his reputation as a problem-solver.

If Counsell gets the Cubs into the postseason with this battered, beaten and patched-together pitching staff, it will be money well spent.

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