SEATTLE — It was just six days ago that Pete Crow-Armstrong led off the game for the Cubs with a home run on the first pitch of the game and then hit another one for a walk-off win.
Now the Cubs have seen it happen against them, courtesy of Mariners outfielder Randy Arozarena, who hit David Peterson’s first pitch out of T-Mobile Park and later smashed a two-run walk-off homer off Jacob Webb for a crushing Cubs defeat by the Mariners, 5-4. Webb had a streak of 24 consecutive scoreless appearances before
this game, and got the first two outs in the ninth easily on just eight pitches before the catastrophic ending.
All right, here goes with the recap of this… whatever the heck this was.
The story pre-game was the MLB debut of highly touted left-hander Kade Anderson, who got the loudest cheers for any Mariner when the lineups were announced. And he retired the first five Cubs he faced before Tyrone Taylor walked with two out in the second. Two more strikeouts of Cubs hitters followed before Arozarena stole a home run from Miguel Amaya in the third [VIDEO].
All credit to Arozarena there — one heck of a play. That came after his leadoff homer gave the Mariners a 1-0 lead in the first. You might remember a similar robbery he made in the 2023 WBC.
David Peterson settled down after that and though there was some traffic on the bases in the second, third and fourth, the game went to the fifth still 1-0. That’s when the Cubs finally got to Anderson. Seiya Suzuki had singled off him in the fourth to take away any thoughts of a no-hit bid, and then Anderson walked Taylor again leading off the fifth. Taylor stole second and held at third on a single by Pedro Ramirez.
Kevin Alcántara’s sacrifice fly tied the game 1-1 [VIDEO].
That left a runner on first with only one out, but Amaya hit into a double play to end the inning.
The Mariners took the lead back off Peterson in the bottom of the fifth. Weldon Wilson singled and went to second on a hit by pitch. An infield hit by Arozarena loaded the bases and a fielder’s choice made it 2-1. Peterson then struck out the next two hitters to end the inning.
The Cubs finally got to Anderson in the sixth, though there’s a play here I want to talk about in detail because it very well could have had an impact on the final score. Pete Crow-Armstrong led off with a double. Suzuki then grounded to third [VIDEO].
I mean… I guess I understand what PCA’s thinking here… try to get to third with one out, where another sac fly could score him. But he stumbled a bit trying to get back to the bag and was doubled up. If you try to move up a base on a play like that, you have to make really, really, REALLY sure you can get either to third or back to second. PCA didn’t do that here and though the Cubs did take the lead in the inning, that play could have cost them at least one and maybe more runs.
So now there are two out with nobody on base, but Alex Bregman paid that no mind and tied the game with his 19th home run and third of the series [VIDEO].
The 19th homer surpassed Bregman’s total from all of last year when he missed 44 games with injuries. The T-Mobile Park crowd booed every single appearance Bregman made on the field — must be a leftover from his AL West division rivalry when he was with the Astros, and the good division series he had against them in 2022.
Michael Busch hit Anderson’s next pitch out of the yard for his 15th homer and a 3-2 Cubs lead [VIDEO].
Back-to-back facts from BCB’s JohnW53:
The sixth-inning homers by Alex Bregman and Michael Busch were the fifth time this season that the Cubs have homered back-to-back. The last had been Monday vs. the White Sox.
The Cubs have gone back-to-back 411 times in the regular season since 1876. They also have hit three in a row 11 times.
Before we look at the rest of the Cubs sixth, a couple of thoughts about Anderson, who was taken out after the Busch homer, his 80th pitch of the game. That matched the most he had thrown in any of his 18 Double-A starts. Is Anderson good? Sure. His velocity wasn’t otherworldly — he was sitting mostly around 94-95. He had a good assortment of pitches, but as you saw, Cubs hitters didn’t wildly swing at stuff out of the zone, as many Double-A hitters did against Anderson. They worked counts, walked twice and eventually took him deep twice.
So yeah, Anderson’s good. Is he “better than Paul Skenes or Jacob Misiorowski” good? I don’t think so, not at this time, anyway.
The Cubs were not done scoring in that sixth inning. Carlos Vargas, making his first appearance for the Mariners this season after a lat injury, gave up back-to-back doubles to Nico Hoerner and Taylor, the second (which bounced into the stands) giving the Cubs a two-run lead [VIDEO].
That inning was good, but again… if PCA doesn’t make that baserunning mistake, maybe we’re talking about a much bigger inning and a Cubs win.
Peterson completed the sixth with a pair of strikeouts sandwiched around a ground ball on which Bregman made a really nice play:
I’ll say it again: Bregman’s going to win a Gold Glove this year. His only real competition would be Matt Chapman, and Chapman hasn’t played since June.
Peterson struck out eight, matching his season high [VIDEO].
Here’s more on Peterson’s evening [VIDEO].
And just remember — that’s the guy the front office (I’m guessing it was the FO, not Craig Counsell) wanted to take out of the rotation for Edward Cabrera. If I’m running this team right now Peterson not only isn’t going anywhere, he might be in line for some postseason starts. More from John on Peterson:
This was David Peterson’s third quality start among his nine since joining the Cubs.
He is tied with Ben Brown for the sixth most on the staff. Shota Imanaga has 11; Matthew Boyd and Colin Rea, six; Edward Cabrera and Jameson Taillon, four.
The Cubs have 41 total QS, a little less than one of every three starts. They had 62 last year, 63 in 2024 and 71 in 2023.
The Cubs couldn’t do anything with Mariners relievers in the seventh, eighth or ninth, with a pinch walk by Ian Happ and Hoerner hit by a pitch being the only baserunners. Neither got past first base, though Nico would have had a steal of second if not for this ABS challenge resulting in an inning-ending strike three on Taylor [VIDEO].
Then, the awful ninth. Two easy outs. It took just seven more pitches from Webb to turn victory into defeat. A double by Wilson. A single by Friday’s Mariners hero, Leo Rivas, made it 4-3. And Arozarena slammed his walk-off on Webb’s second pitch, a slider that was actually a pretty good pitch:
That’s a pitch most hitters can’t get to, or they pop it up. Arozarena hit it a long way. A tip o’ the cap to the Mariners left fielder, who had a career game with his two homers and steal of one from Amaya.
More on that from John:
So Arozarena did to the Cubs what PCA did to the White Sox on Monday: first-pitch homer and walk-off homer.
And that ends the Cubs’ streak of nine straight wins in series on the road, tying the team record set in 1912.
…..
Friday and Saturday were the 13th time since 2000 that the Cubs suffered back-to-back walk-off losses.The most recent pair had been Sept. 1-2, 2023, at Cincinnati, by 3-2 and 2-1.
The one before that had been vs. two teams, on Aug. 15-16, 2019, at Philadelphia, 7-5, and at Pittsburgh, 3-2.
Only one of the previous 12 had been against an American League team, on June 27-28, 2003, at the White Sox, by 4-3 and 7-6.
A note on the baseball history made in this game:
Also (Bluesky link):
I have seen three of those seven in person: Arozarena’s in this game, PCA’s on Monday and Reed Johnson’s in Toronto in 2003, which was also against the Cubs.
No sugarcoating this one, it hurt, from a fan standpoint and I’m sure for the players. Webb has been so good this year and, well, he had a bad day at the worst possible time. The 24-game scoreless streak was tied for fifth-longest in franchise history (and tied for third-longest in a single season), with some eclectic names:
| Rk | Player | Team | Streak | Streak Started | Streak Ended |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scott Eyre | CHC | 33 | 2007-08-16 | 2008-06-13 |
| 2 | Ryan Dempster | CHC | 31 | 2005-08-16 | 2006-04-19 |
| 3 | Andrew Chafin | CHC | 26 | 2021-05-08 | 2021-07-21 |
| 4 | Warren Brusstar | CHC | 25 | 1983-05-22 | 1983-07-23 |
| 5 | Jacob Webb | CHC | 24 | 2026-06-24 (2) | 2026-08-21 |
| 6 | Mark Guthrie | CHC | 24 | 2003-06-20 | 2003-08-14 |
Generated 8/22/2026
The loss reduced the Cubs’ lead over the Phillies for the top wild-card spot to just two games. Good thing the Cubs have the tiebreaker there.
The Cubs will look to salvage the final game of this series Sunday afternoon in Seattle. Shōta Imanaga will take the mound for the Cubs and Bryce Miller will start for the Mariners. Game time is 3:10 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.
