Chicago Cubs: Most gut-wrenching losses of the Maddon era

Chicago Cubs: Nothing worse than losing when one strike away.

7-9-15. A midsummer night at Wrigley Field between the Cubs and Cardinals, does not get much better than that. The then-young Cubs were looking for a series win against their bitter rivals in a game which saw back and fourth scoring between the two sides.

After falling behind 4-0, the Cubs took a 5-4 lead in the sixth inning when Miguel Montero cleared the bases on a double to right. That score carried into the ninth inning with Pedro Strop on the mound. He got the first two hitters before walking a Matt Carpenter to face Jhonny Peralta. Strop had a 1-2 count on him, and tried to go with some heat to the slugging veteran…then…WHAM.

The ball left Peralta’s bat in a hurry and ended up in the basket near the left field well. A crowd of 37,993 stood stunned as Peralta jogged the bases and the splattered sections of red in the stands cheered. Despite getting the tying run to second in the bottom of the inning, the Cubs failed to score and lost 6-5. Nothing worse than losing in that kind of fashion to your rival team.