The Cubs final score was 1-0 again and they’ve lost four in a row

Well, that was inconvenient.

The Cubs, on the cusp of clinching home field for the Wild Card series against the Padres, have not been able to take a single digit off the magic number for such things since Friday. It remains at 4 after the Cubs lost to the Reds 1-0 for the second time this weekend, and the Padres defeated the White Sox in Chicago Sunday afternoon.

The lack of offense ruined an outstanding outing from Jameson Taillon, who threw seven innings and allowed just that single run, in the third on a pair of Reds doubles, one by Matt McLain, the other by Gavin Lux. That’s the same way the Reds scored that single run in Thursday’s series opener, two doubles, only by different hitters.

There really aren’t any highlights to show you or play-by-play that’s worth talking about here, other than the fact that the Cubs once again failed with RISP. They left nine men on base in this game and went 0-for-7 with RISP, including Pete Crow-Armstrong striking out to end the game with the tying run on second base. (Incidentally, I’m not sure why Matt Shaw wasn’t running for Moises Ballesteros in that situation, unless he was unavailable.)

That made the Cubs 2-for-20 with RISP in this series. Given that, there were plenty of opportunities to score, the Cubs just failed in pretty much all of them. That’s not going to get them far in the postseason.

Can’t say enough about Jamo and his outing in this game. He was masterful and also threw well against the Pirates earlier in the road trip. Given that, perhaps he winds up starting one of the Wild Card series games.

Here’s more on Taillon’s outing [VIDEO].

A note regarding this pitching performance from BCB’s JohnW53:

Until today, no Cubs starter had pitched at least seven innings, allowed one run on five hits and suffered a loss in more than 10 years, since May 17, 2015, when Jake Arrieta did it in a 3-0 loss at home to the Pirates.

It had happened only three other times this century. The pitchers were Carlos Zambrano, in 2003; Matt Clement, in 2004; and Ted Lilly, in 2009.

Cubs starters have won 329 such games, lost 54 and had 46 no-decisions.

And a few notes on the Cubs’ first four-game losing streak of 2025 from John:

With their fourth straight loss today, 1906 remains the only season in which the Cubs did not drop four in a row at least once.

Today’s game, the Cubs’ 156th this year, is the latest by game number in which they have suffered a fourth loss for the first time. Their first such loss came in their 150th game in 1912.

That game was on Oct. 1. In 1910, the fourth loss came on Sept. 26, in game 138; in 1934, on Sept. 22, in game 144. 

Lastly from John, about the Cubs on the road this year:

The Cubs’ final road record of 42-39 is their eighth best in a full season since 2000. They were 48-33 in 2015, 46-34-1 in 2016, 44-36 in 2004; 44-37 in 2003, 2017 and 2018; and 42-38 in 2008.

The Cubs now cannot clinch home field until Wednesday. The Padres open a three-game series against the Brewers in San Diego Monday. The Brewers lost Sunday, but clinched the NL Central title when the Cubs lost. Hopefully, they will still put on a good performance vs. San Diego. The Reds tied the Mets for the final wild-card spot with their win and the Mets’ loss Sunday — and the Reds have the tiebreaker — so the Mets will be pretty desperate when they come to Wrigley Field Tuesday.

Before I get to the Tuesday matchup, I want to tell you a story about a recent team. You probably even remember some of this, but let me refresh your memory.

The 2022 Phillies defeated the Marlins on Sept. 14 to get to 80-62. They had a wild-card spot well in hand. There were 20 games left in the season.

Then they lost five in a row, then won three straight — and then lost another five straight, including being swept by a mediocre Cubs team at Wrigley Field. I remember those games, Phillies fans there were beside themselves about their team’s plight. They recovered to win four of five, but backed into the postseason despite a loss to the Astros on the season’s second-to-last day.

After that 80-62 record the 2022 Phillies went 7-13, one of the worst records in the league — the Cubs were 13-6 in that span.

Then they went to the ninth inning of the first game of their Wild Card series against the Cardinals trailing 2-0, only to score six runs in that inning and take that series. They won a division series from the Braves three games to one and the NLCS over the Padres four games to one, making the World Series, which they lost to Houston. That’s a 9-2 record from the end of the regular season to the beginning of the World Series.

Am I saying the Cubs are going to do this? No, only that they could. The Phillies were a good team on a bad run before they got hot, and despite being swept out of Cincinnati, this is still a very good Cubs team that plays well at Wrigley Field, where they will return this week, and if they go 4-2 over the six games vs. the Mets and Cardinals, they’ll play at least two postseason games there.

Feel better now? Okay, maybe not. But this season has had plenty of ups and downs, this Cubs team has had good runs as well as times when they have failed to get any offense going at all. I think there’s more hitting left in this team and they’ll start showing it this week.

The Cubs open their final homestand of the 2025 regular season with a three-game set against the Mets. Cade Horton will start the series opener Tuesday evening and left-hander (uh-oh) David Peterson will go for New York. Game time Tuesday is 6:40 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network (and TBS outside the Cubs and Mets market territories)