Same old story for crushed Cubs, who can kiss playoffs goodbye
MILWAUKEE — In the middle of the second inning Friday night, the American Family Field scoreboard replayed Seiya Suzuki’s Brant Brown-esque error in Atlanta, presenting it as the kicker to a blooper reel package.
Talk about a mood-setter.
Whether or not opposing teams keep bringing it up — and they will — Suzuki’s error will live on in Chicago as the emblematic moment of a September collapse.
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The playoffs were in reach like an easy fly ball, but the Cubs let it slip from their collective grasp.
Eight innings after the video played, the Cubs glumly walked off the field as the Brewers celebrated a 4-3 victory in 10 innings. Milwaukee didn’t need this win and manager Craig Counsell used a variety of unproven pitchers to prove that, but there’s a gap between a playoff team like the Brewers and a playoff pretender like the Cubs and it has nothing to do with payroll.
Define this Cubs season however you like. But in the end, it was objectively a major disappointment because of their September collapse. With their backs against the wall, the Cubs crumpled to the ground.
The Cubs had a golden opportunity to make the playoffs and they were simply unable to meet the moment. I don’t say unwilling, though others might. And I wouldn’t say the season was a failure, but the description “choke” is fair. The Cubs coughed up their opportunity to play in the postseason in a variety of ways. Maybe the stakes weren’t as high as, say 2004, because they weren’t a team with World Series expectations or talent, but even when it comes to a playoff cameo, I always harken back to Theo Epstein’s words when he got hired to fix this franchise.
“Every opportunity to win is sacred,” Epstein said in 2011. “It’s sacred to us inside the organization, and it should be sacred to the fans as well.”
Since sweeping the Giants at home on Sept. 4-6, the Cubs, losers of four in a row, have gone 6-14. In a three-week span, they went from having a chance to win the division to needing help from the Pirates, who play the Marlins, on the last weekend of the season. After getting swept in Atlanta, there was a feeling of finality entering this series, and it was fitting that just after the Marlins scored four runs to go up on Pittsburgh in the eighth inning Friday, Kyle Hendricks was loading the bases. The Brewers then scored a run on a groundout, and Carlos Santana hit a cue shot to right field for a two-run triple to make it 3-0.
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The Cubs came back to tie it with two runs in the eighth and Ian Happ’s solo homer in the ninth. The Chicago half of a typically bipartisan crowd woke up and started a “Let’s Go Cubbies” chant and Dansby Swanson made two Gold Glove defensive plays in the bottom of the inning to send it to extras.
But in the bottom of the 10th inning, Santana won it with a double. The Brewers rushed the field to celebrate. Like winners do, regardless of the stakes.
The Marlins’ win in Pittsburgh means they just need one win or one Cubs loss in the next two days to clinch the third wild-card spot and avoid resuming their suspended game in New York on Monday. They’re up 2-1 in the top of the ninth in a game that was stopped Thursday night in Queens. Miami, as you probably know if you’re reading this column, own the tiebreaker over the Cubs. (So do the Reds, who moved into a tie with them Friday.)
So it’s over.
A devastated Happ said what you’d expect after the game about focusing on Saturday and saving the postmortem for later. But his ashen face belied his words. The postgame clubhouse was as quiet as you’d expect with the only sounds coming from shuffled chairs and clinking silverware.
It’s been a hard fall. This was the Cubs’ eighth one-run loss this month — compared to two such victories — and their third in the last four games.
“It definitely adds to the frustration,” said Hendricks, Friday’s starter. “But again, we’re right in all these games. With one bounce here or there, or one swing of the bat or one made pitch, whatever you want to call it, we could’ve had a lot different outcomes here.”
But they didn’t. And that’s the difference between a team celebrating on the field and one walking off knowing their season is about to end.
Silver lining: At least the Cubs didn’t blow a lead this time.
Since Sep. 16, the Cubs have held a lead in 7 different innings on the road in 8th or later.
They blew the lead in the bottom half in all 7.
No other MLB team in the modern era has blown the lead in more than 5 straight road innings in 8th or later in which they held a lead.
— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) September 28, 2023
There is plenty of blame to divvy up for the team’s situation. For one, the front office couldn’t fortify the bullpen, which was decimated by injuries and ineffectiveness down the stretch. They’ve gone 6-11 since closer Adbert Alzolay went on the injured list with a forearm strain, including Friday’s game, in which he returned and pitched the eighth. Michael Fulmer has pitched only once since Aug 24. The bullpen needs to be addressed, obviously.
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Swanson, the big free-agent pickup, didn’t hit when it mattered, and overall, the Cubs’ defensive focus this month looked more like what you get from a bad fall-ball team instead of a playoff contender. Every bobble of the ball this month seemed to hint at a team tensing up when the moment got too big.
Dansby Swanson, who is 3 for his last 21 (.143), after the Cubs latest defeat: “Just playing bad. Which I own. Just haven’t performed in moments recently. Sucks. It's definitely something I'm frickin working on. Its just not happening.”
— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) September 30, 2023
But it’s not as if this is just some young, scrappy Cubs team that hit their ceiling and fell to earth, ready to use what they learned for next season and beyond.
The story of the 2023 Cubs is simple: It was a pretty good team that just didn’t have what it takes. They didn’t have to be great, they just had to win the third wild card. And like that dropped fly ball by Suzuki, it was right in their grasp before it wasn’t.
(Photo of Kyle Hendricks walking off the mound as manager David Ross gives him a pat during a pitching change in the fifth inning: Benny Sieu / USA Today)
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