CINCINNATI -- The season began with a tease. It wasn't the way the Chicago Cubs drew it up after a dismal finish to 2018, as they opened 2019 in about the same manner. Actually, they lost games on the mound, whereas at the end of last season, those defeats came via their bats.
Either way, they were losing. Again.
It gave the baseball world reason to contemplate whether the four-time playoff-appearing Cubs were going in the wrong direction. After all, their manager is a lame duck, and the roster is essentially the same as the one that got bounced at home in a division tiebreaker and in the NL wild-card game -- on consecutive days.