Disappointing for sure, even if the other 7 were quite strong opponents. If I’m looking for reasons explaining that disappointment, I’d go to SP(26th in starter ERA), randomness(everyone has multiple 7-10 spells in a season), and luck(2-5 in 1 run games) before I got to the offense or it’s specific slappiness. Imagine, I'm not even going to say watching games, but even just checking box scores and thinking the problem with this team thus far is anything other than starting pitching. The problem with the offense from 2017-2021 was the inconsistency. Sharma had a couple of good article on it in ~May of last year, but for offenses in the top 10-15 in the league, the Cubs had a higher proportion of their games end with 0, 1, or 2 runs. Each of the first four or five runs is significantly more likely to be a game winner than like the 10th, so it it's likely this boom/bust cycle was a big part of the team's underperformance and hot/cold nature. Look no further than what this team did against the Pirates for a good example of what this can look like. Was that proportion something like 5/17ths, out of curiosity? We have the highest babip in the league, by 12 points, but we’re 12th in ISO. 27th in LD%, first, comfortably in GB%. This is the 2022 cubs offense in their ‘boom’/‘hot’ cycle.