Coming into this brief three-game homestand, the last regular-season games at Wrigley Field for 2026, the Cubs needed to win only one of them to punch their ticket into the postseason tournament and also to bolster their chances for hosting the first round of that tournament.
Well. Here we are two days into that three-game homestand and the first of those things is still true and the second might be fading away.
The Cubs lost to the Marlins 3-2 on another wind-blowing-in night at Wrigley Field. With the Diamondbacks defeating the woeful Rockies and the Padres beating the Dodgers, the Cubs did not clinch a wild-card spot — and if everyone wins out now, the Cubs would find themselves traveling to San Diego for a Wild Card Series on Tuesday.
Sheesh. This is not going the way anyone connected with the Cubs had hoped.
Let’s look at what happened in this one.
Kevin Gausman and Ryan Gusto matched zeroes for five innings. The Cubs had RISP in the first and fourth but failed to score. Yes, you have heard this song before. Way too many times. It didn’t help that Nico Hoerner got picked off in the second [VIDEO].
Your browser does not support the video tag.
But the Marlins couldn’t push any runs across the plate either over that span. Miguel Amaya threw out Javier Sanoja trying to steal in the second [VIDEO].
Your browser does not support the video tag.
Then, a fateful sixth inning. Otto Lopez led off with a single off Gausman and Kyle Stowers homered, so Miami led 2-0. Gausman then issued a walk.
Then this happened [VIDEO].
Your browser does not support the video tag.
You can hear Jim Deshaies in the clip say, “Hopefully he’s okay” about Gausman, who left the game after that play. Gausman was at 101 pitches so he likely wasn’t going much longer anyway, but…
Well, that’s not good. Here’s more from Gausman postgame [VIDEO].
Your browser does not support the video tag.
Javier Assad got out of the inning by inducing a ground ball to short.
The Cubs then got some offense going in the bottom of the inning. Michael Busch led off with a single. One out later, Ian Happ doubled, with Busch stopping at third. Hoerner was hit by a pitch, loading the bases, but Pedro Ramirez then struck out.
Dansby Swanson’s broken-bat single scored Busch and Happ [VIDEO].
Your browser does not support the video tag.
So now the game’s tied heading to the seventh. Unfortunately, it would not be tied for long. Ryan Rolison entered to throw the seventh. With one out, Agustin Ramirez and pinch-hitter Esteury Ruiz singled. Ramirez took third on the Ruiz hit, which would turn out to be very important.
This is how close the Cubs came to getting out of the inning [VIDEO].
Your browser does not support the video tag.
An inning-ending double play was called on the field, but as you can see, the runner at second was safe, and the call was overturned on review. That allowed the lead run to score.
Still, down 3-2 in the seventh, not insurmountable, right?
Wrong. The Cubs went down in order in the seventh and eighth. Jacob Webb and Colin Rea threw scoreless eighth and ninth innings, and then the Marlins used starter Sandy Alcántara to close, something he’d done a week ago against the Diamondbacks.
Pedro Ramirez led off with a single, but Swanson flied to left and Carson Kelly, batting for Amaya, hit into a game-ending double play.
You can clearly see how much this offense misses Alex Bregman’s bat. 1-for-8 with RISP in this one, making the team 2-for-26 in those situations over the last two days. That’s just not going to win many baseball games.
About this one, from BCB’s JohnW53:
This was the eighth loss of the season for the Cubs in which they rallied to tie but never led.
They have erased 72 deficits, in 64 different games. They are 41-23 in those games, but have lost four in a row, seven of eight and nine of 11 starting Aug. 21.
Here are Craig Counsell’s postgame remarks [VIDEO].
Your browser does not support the video tag.
With the Padres’ win over the Dodgers Wednesday evening, that means the Cubs would have to win one more game than San Diego does over the season’s final four games to have home field — and also win at least as many games as the Phillies do going forward. Something that seemed a no-brainer two days ago now appears to be a tough hill to climb.
The Cubs can still get into the postseason tournament, of course, but they are looking at possibly having to play a road series at San Diego — or maybe at Atlanta, if things don’t shake out better than they have over the last two days.
One regular season game remains at Wrigley Field, Thursday afternoon at 1:20 p.m. CT. Matthew Boyd will start for the Cubs and Tyler Phillips goes for Miami. The game will be televised by Marquee Sports Network.
Read the full article here
