CHICAGO – Jonathan Mota, a bilingual coach who has spent two decades working in various capacities for the Chicago Cubs, waved Pedro Ramírez over to Nico Hoerner’s locker inside the Wrigley Field clubhouse.It had been roughly 48 hours since Ramírez first reported for work as a major-league player. Triple-A Iowa manager Marty Pevey woke him up Thursday night when he called with the good news. By Sunday morning, with the Cubs mired in a team-wide funk, the parameters of the assignment had already changed.Once the hottest team in baseball, the Cubs are starting to look desperate for solutions.Those two 10-game winning streaks that raised World Series hopes in Wrigleyville feel like ancient history. The been-there, done-that vibes from an experienced group of players can seem out of touch, even if they’re right when they say it’s a long season. The pitching staff still has to cover around 1,000 innings, but the injuries never stop.This losing streak extended to eight games with Sunday afternoon’s 8-5 loss to the Houston Astros in front of a crowd of 40,048 that showed up early for the Ryne Sandberg bobblehead giveaway.Teams don’t send out news releases when a player gets benched, the way the Cubs announced Edward Cabrera’s placement on the 15-day injured list with a blister on his right middle finger. But this is how the dynamics begin to shift.Instead of simply observing Chicago’s Gold Glove infielders and gaining exposure to the club’s gameday routines — which is how Cubs manager Craig Counsell initially framed the promotion — Ramírez was the starting second baseman.Pedro Ramírez reacts after hitting an RBI double in the second inning. (Photo by Griffin Quinn/Getty Images)That decision moved Hoerner to shortstop as Counsell gave the day off to Dansby Swanson, a superb defender who’s batting .189 in the fourth season of a seven-year, $177 million contract. With duffel bags and suitcases strewn about the locker room for the upcoming road trip to Pittsburgh and St. Louis, Mota helped connect Ramírez with Hoerner for a quick conversation.“We were just talking about things that could happen in the game,” Ramírez said through an interpreter. “Communication is important.”Counsell had already signaled a two-day reset for Ian Happ, the team’s longest-tenured player who’s in a deep slump and a contract year. Michael Conforto again started over Happ in left field, a position that could also be manned by Ramírez or Kevin Alcántara, another top prospect recently summoned from Triple A.Perhaps a mental break would benefit Seiya Suzuki, who has one home run across his last 15 games and a .593 OPS in May. Then again, signing Alex Bregman to a five-year, $175 million contract this past offseason was supposed to help prevent these extreme downturns.Bregman has one home run in May and a .682 OPS so far this season. More than leadership skills, the Cubs need their new All-Star third baseman to produce on the field at a higher rate.“We’re not playing good baseball,” Bregman said. “In all phases, we need to get better. We need to prepare and execute better.“It starts with me, obviously. Too many empty plate appearances.”With Jed Hoyer’s front office not expecting much action until much closer to the Aug. 3 trade deadline, the Cubs will have to tinker and hope their pitchers get healthy. Between their versatile infielders, at-bats for the designated hitter and the corner spots next to center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong, this could get interesting.“We’ve got a group that loves playing, and I love that about them,” Counsell said. “But I also think we’ve got some guys that are just not on it right now. As much as going out there every single day and fighting through it and wanting to be out there is kind of wired into them, sometimes a day of just watching and not having to figure it out in the game and compete is helpful.”After going 15-0 at Wrigley Field between April 12 and May 7, the Cubs returned from a three-series road trip and submitted an 0-6 homestand in which they never led at any point during those first five games against the Milwaukee Brewers and Astros, a fading club that does not resemble the playoff contender from its glory years.Hoping for a spark, the Cubs watched Ramírez notch his first major-league hit — an RBI double that propelled a three-run second inning. But that lead was short-lived, even against an Astros team that has the following names on the injured list: Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, Josh Hader, Hunter Brown and Lance McCullers Jr.Shota Imanaga, the Cubs’ de facto ace amid their own set of health issues, gave up seven runs in Sunday’s loss, which followed his ugly outing (eight runs allowed in 4 1/3 innings) in the first game last week against the Brewers. This is the first time in his major-league career that he has lost three consecutive starts.“In the world of competition, there’s a fine line,” Imanaga said through an interpreter. “We won 15 games in a row at home, and there were specific situations where it can roll either way. Right now, it’s rolling towards a loss.”During this eight-game losing streak — which started against the Chicago White Sox — the Cubs have been outscored 51-23. After a video went viral, Crow-Armstrong apologized for his vulgar exchange with a female fan on the South Side. The well-run Brewers reclaimed first place in the National League Central. Chicago’s organizational pitching depth was starting to run out a month ago. The boos could again be heard at the Friendly Confines.The Cubs will wake up in Pittsburgh with a 29-24 record on Memorial Day, a traditional marker on the baseball calendar. That pace projects close to 90 wins, but it also assumes that the Cubs can fix these problems.“One thing that I’ve learned in baseball is not riding that roller coaster,” Cubs first baseman Michael Busch said. “Individually, as a team, no matter if you’re winning a lot of games, it’s about showing up the next day and grinding and putting in your work and trusting in your abilities, at the plate, in the field, on the mound. We’ve got a good group, and we’re going to fight through.”