This one hurt.
The Cubs were one strike away from a stirring, ninth-inning rally win over the rival Brewers.
Then: Single, two-run homer smashed halfway to the moon off Jacob Webb, and eventually a 10-inning loss, 4-3 to Milwaukee.
For those of you of a certain age, you were likely reminded of this game, almost exactly 57 years ago to the day, that helped kill the 1969 Cubs.
Fortunately for the 2026 Cubs, there are more postseason spots available now than back then, and the Cubs are still likely headed
for a wild card series. Maybe. Possibly. Hopefully.
Sigh. Let’s recap, shall we?
The Cubs jumped on Jacob Misiorowski for a run in the first inning. Seiya Suzuki hit a one-out double and one out later, Michael Busch singled him in [VIDEO].
The Brewers came back to tie the game in the bottom of the inning on a double by Jackson Chourio and single by Brice Turang.
And that is where the score stayed until the ninth inning. David Peterson settled down, but had to be removed in the fifth at 83 pitches, only 47 of which were strikes. About that, from BCB’s JohnW53:
David Peterson became the 11th different Cubs starter this year to complete four innings but not five. Javier Assad and Jameson Taillon did it four times; Matthew Boyd, Shota Imanaga and Colin Rea, three; Ben Brown, Edward Cabrera, Kevin Gausman and Clay Holmes, two; and Peterson and Jordan Wicks, one.
That adds up to 27 starts, one of every 5.4 total starts.
From the second through the eighth, the Brewers got just three runners past first base. Along the way, the Cubs got a great defensive play from Matt Shaw in the second [VIDEO].
In the fifth, the Brewers had runners on first and second when Peterson was removed with one out. Trent Thornton relieved Peterson and struck out pinch-hitter Jake Bauers.
Then this happened [VIDEO].
That was just a fantastic throw from Suzuki and great tag by Miguel Amaya.
But the Cubs got only one runner past first base from the second through the eighth. That was Pete Crow-Armstrong, who singled with two out in the fifth and stole second, his 36th [VIDEO].
That was also PCA’s 100th career stolen base. More on that from John:
Pete Crow-Armstrong’s stolen base was his 100th. He is the 34th Cub to reach triple digits but only the ninth who played after 1947. Of those, Ryne Sandberg stole 344; Sammy Sosa, 181; Shawon Dunston, 175; Ivan de Jesus, 154; Nico Hoerner, 153; Jose Cardenal, 129; Bob Dernier, 119; and Ryan Theriot, 100.
But he was stranded.
The Cubs got some excellent relief work from Aaron Civale, who has been a revelation in the pen. He retired all six batters he faced, four by strikeout, and for an outing with that many K’s, it was efficient: Just 26 pitches, 19 of which were strikes. Ryan Rolison threw a scoreless eighth on just 13 pitches (nine strikes).
Then the Cubs took the lead in the ninth. Nico Hoerner and Pedro Ramirez led off with singles. Matt Shaw was called out on strikes, but Michael Conforto then walked to load the bases.
Craig Counsell sent Carson Kelly up to bat for Amaya. Kelly had an excellent at-bat, fouling off a whole bunch of pitches before hitting this two-run double [VIDEO].
As you can see, that didn’t miss being a three-run homer by much, and, well, that would have helped.
In any case, the Cubs led 3-1 going to the bottom of the ninth. Webb retired the first two Brewers on just seven pitches. Webb ran an 0-2 count on pinch-hitter Christian Yelich.
One. Strike. Away.
Yelich ran the count full and then singled. Chourio, who had been 3-for-4 coming into this at-bat, slammed Webb’s second pitch out of the yard at 110 miles per hour to tie the game.
A fly out ended the inning and on to extras it went.
Suzuki was the placed runner. Bregman flied to right. Suzuki tried to take third, the right thing to do in this situation, but he overslid the base and was thrown out [VIDEO].
Thus the Cubs did not score in the 10th, and that gave them a near-impossible situation in the bottom of the inning. Caleb Thielbar entered to pitch and struck out Bauers, and then William Contreras was given an intentional pass. A single by Sal Frelick loaded the bases, and Luis Lara singled in the game-winner.
Sigh, again.
Here are postgame remarks from Webb [VIDEO].
Credit, at least, to Webb for being a standup guy.
Here are Counsell’s postgame comments [VIDEO].
One more note on this one from John:
This was the 11th game of the season in which the Cubs blew multiple leads. They are 5-6 in such games.
They have blown 63 leads, 24 of them in the next half-inning after going ahead, including both Wednesday night.
In all games in which they have blown leads, the Cubs are 23-29. They have lost nine in a row starting on Aug. 21. They had won five straight before then.
As bad as this feels, this is not the end of the world. The Cubs still trail the Phillies for the top wild card spot by just half a game, as the Phillies also lost Tuesday. The Cubs lead the Diamondbacks by three games and the Padres by 3.5 in the wild card race. As you know, the Cubs have the tiebreaker over all three of those teams. That might become very, very important.
The Cubs will try to salvage the final regular season game against the Brewers Wednesday evening in Milwaukee. It’ll be the third straight pitching rematch from last week: Kevin Gausman vs. Logan Henderson. Gausman had a really good game last week; here’s hoping for another just like that. Game time is 6:40 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.
