On Thursday, the Chicago Cubs snatched victory from the jaws of defeat against the St. Louis Cardinals. On Saturday, the Cardinals returned the favor.
After taking the first two games of their four-game series at Wrigley Field, the Cubs were poised to win again on Saturday. They got six innings of one-run ball from Jameson Taillon and took a 4-1 lead into the bottom of the eighth inning.
Then, as has happened far too often this season for Chicago, disaster struck.
With two on and two out, Brendan Donovan chopped a high bouncing ball down the third-base line to Isaac Paredes, who fielded the ball cleanly but didn’t have a play. Rather than eating the ball, he desperately hurled it across the diamond in a futile effort to get Donovan, who was going to be safe no matter what. The ball sailed over the head of first baseman Michael Busch, allowing one run to score and the two baserunners to advance into scoring position.
Cubs broadcast calls their disastrous 8th inning, allowing the Cardinals to tie the game
🎙️ Jon Sciambi
🎨 Jim Deshaies#stlcards pic.twitter.com/Hmaq81USkM— VHS (@VanHicklestein) August 3, 2024
It didn’t seem to matter when Nolan Arenado lifted a lazy fly ball to shallow center field. Porter Hodge pounded his mitt on the mound, confident he’d just gotten the third out.
Second baseman Nico Hoerner went back on the ball and appeared to be camping under it, while Pete Crow-Armstrong came in hesitantly from center. At the last possible second, Crow-Armstrong called off Hoerner, who got out of the way. Crow-Armstrong slid but couldn’t come up with the ball, which dropped in front of him for a game-tying two-run single.
The Cubs completed their collapse in the ninth, allowing St. Louis to score again and steal a 5-4 victory.
It was another brutal loss for Chicago, which simply can’t afford to blow winnable games like this at this point in the season. A win would have finally moved the Cubs out of last place in the NL Central and put them five games behind the Arizona Diamondbacks for the third Wild Card spot. It also would have given them four straight wins and clinched the series against the Cardinals.
Chicago will try to bounce back and win the series finale on Sunday Night Baseball behind Justin Steele (2-5, 3.38 ERA), who has struggled since the All-Star Break with a 7.20 ERA over his last three starts (all Cubs losses). He’ll face Miles Mikolas, who’s 8-8 with a 4.99 ERA but is coming off back-to-back quality starts.
