There are a couple of massive bullpen meltdowns in this group of losses.
There are also a couple of games in which the opposition would simply not stop hitting home runs.
I promise you there will be a “5 best Cubs games of 2025” article coming up next week, but I thought we’d start this year-end review by having a look at the worst of the worst for our favorite team in 2025.
March 30: Diamondbacks 10, Cubs 6
This doesn’t seem so bad if you just look at the score, right?
Oh, but bad it is if you look at what the score was going into the bottom
of the eighth: Cubs 6, D-backs 2.
Caleb Thielbar had relieved Nate Pearson in the seventh, when Pearson had allowed two runs and left a mess on the bases. Thielbar walked the first batter he faced and then finished off the inning with a strikeout and ground out.
So far, so good. But Thielbar was left in to start the eighth and walked the first two hitters he faced. That was it for Thielbar and Eli Morgan relieved him.
Yikes, bad idea. Morgan managed to get the first D-backs hitter he faced, then, in order: Double, home run, single, double, intentional walk, single, single. Seven runs scored with one man retired, five charged to Morgan, two to Thielbar. Colin Rea entered and served up a double to make it an eight-run inning.
Morgan would pitch in just four more games for the Cubs before missing the rest of the season with injuries.
The good news was that the next day, the Cubs began a five-game winning streak.
May 6: Giants 14, Cubs 5
Justin Turner and Kyle Tucker hit RBI singles in the bottom of the ninth to tie this game 5-5. The Cubs managed to get the winning run to third with one out in the 10th, but could not score.
Then Ryan Pressly threw what is probably the worst relief inning in the history of baseball.
There was, of course, a placed runner which resulted in one of the nine runs off Pressly being unearned. But the rest of the inning off Pressly went like this: Double, single, successful squeeze bunt with the batter reaching base, walk, HBP, single, single, single.
Caleb Thielbar entered and got the first out, but a double and a sac fly made it a nine-run inning.
Oh, yes, about that “worst relief inning in the history of baseball”:
Really, the Cubs should have just released Pressly right then and there. He stuck around long enough to get one more save — likely his last MLB save — and two more blown saves before he was let go when the Cubs acquired Andrew Kittredge.
Hey, Jed! Don’t sign or trade for any more washed-up Houston relievers.
June 22: Mariners 14, Cubs 6
The Cubs never led in this game, though they trailed 2-1 after one inning following a Seiya Suzuki home run. Then Suzuki homered again in a three-run fifth to bring the Cubs to within one again at 5-4.
Suzuki had a nice game. Reese McGuire also homered.
But the Mariners outhomered the Cubs 5-3 that day. Cal Raleigh hit his 31st — and fourth in the series, in which he went 6-for-12 with eight (!) runs scored. Donovan Solano and Dominic Canzone both went deep twice for Seattle, who won two of three and outscored the Cubs 30-20 in the three games.
July 11: Yankees 11, Cubs 0
The Cubs managed to match zeroes with the host Yankees for two innings, until an Aaron Judge sac fly and two-run homer by Cody Bellinger made it 3-0 New York.
Everyone could have gone home right then because the Cubs managed just five hits on the evening.
But the game continued, and Bellinger hit two more home runs, the first three-homer game against the Cubs since Josh Rojas of the Diamondbacks did it May 20, 2022.
And Bellinger might have had a fourth homer if not for this robbery by Kyle Tucker [VIDEO].
July 25: White Sox 12, Cubs 5
The Sox teed off early and often against Shōta Imanaga, who allowed three home runs and seven runs total in his three innings of work.
The Sox led 11-0 after five innings, and the Cubs managed a few consolation runs late in the game, three of them on a home run by Reese McGuire off Adrian Houser.
It was the only win in six tries by the Sox over the Cubs in 2025.
Dishonorable mentions to the 8-7 loss to the Marlins in Miami May 19, when Daniel Palencia was one out away from closing a 7-5 win when he allowed a bases-loaded triple; to the 12-4 loss to the Royals July 21 at Wrigley Field, a game the Cubs led 4-1 going to the fourth; and to the 12-3 loss to the Giants Aug. 27 in San Francisco, where the Cubs took a 3-1 lead to the bottom of the third, but the Giants smashed four home runs and Rafael Devers went 4-for-4 with five RBI.
The article with my picks for the five best Cubs games of 2025 will appear here on Monday.
