Cubs close out first half by returning to their Chamber of Horrors, Yankee Stadium

The Cubs this weekend will enter the worst place one earth to play a baseball game…for them, anyway. On the heels of their recent trip to Minneapolis-St. Paul, Chicago opens a three-game series Friday night in the Bronx. Historically, there are no two words that put more fear in a Cubs fan’s heart than these: Yankee Stadium.

Since the two teams first met in the 1932 World Series, the Cubs have played 15 games at facilities named Yankee Stadium. Their record: 2-13, a dismal .133 winning percentage.

Of course it could be worse. Through the season of 2022 the numbers read this way: 12 Cubs games over a span of 90 seasons at Yankee Stadium, all 12 of them losses…and by an average score of 7-2.

Only in 2023, the team’s most recent visit to the third iteration of Yankee Stadium, did Chicago finally win a game there. Jameson Taillon did it, shutting out the Yankees 3-0. Two days later, a Cub eighth inning rally that featured a single, two walks, a sacrifice fly, a wild pitch and a balk broke a 4-4 tie and gave Julian Merryweather the team’s second Yankee Stadium win.

Prior to those two incidents, Yankee Stadium had been a total chamber of Cub horrors. The team’s .133 lifetime winning percentage in the Bronx is still less than half of the Cubs’ next worst road winning percentage, .273 in Tampa Bay.

And it’s not just that the Cubs constantly lose in the Bronx, they constantly get blown out. Of their 13 losses, only one has been by a margin of one run, and only one other has been by two runs. Five have been by five or more runs, including blowouts as long ago as 1932 and as recently as 2022.

Here’s a brief sketch of the doleful history of Cubs efforts at any place called Yankee Stadium.

Games 1 and 2, World Series, Sept. 28 and 29, 1932. In the Cubs’ first excursion to the House that Ruth Built, Cubs starter Guy Bush opened the sixth inning of  a 3-2 Yankee lead by walking the bases full – rarely a good idea. Two hits and a botched fielder’s choice later, the Yanks led 8-2 on their way to a 12-6 win. The next day, Lon Warneke walked the first two batters he faced, setting the stage for run-producing hits by Lou Gehrig and Bill Dickey. New York won 5-2.

Games 3 and 4, World Series, Oct. 8 and 9, 1938. Trailing 2 games to none, the Cubs offense managed just five hits off Yankee starter Monte Pearson, who pitched a complete game 5-2 win punctuated by home runs by Joe Gordon and Bill Dickey. One day later, a second inning Billy Jurges error opened the door for three unearned Yankee runs and New York closed out the series 8-3.

June 17-19, 2005. Inter-league play began in 1997, but fate did not require the Cubs to return to the second version of Yankee Stadium until 2005. When they dd, they ran into a Yankee team on its way to a 95-win, divisional co-championship season. The Cubs took a 6-4 lead into the seventh inning of the first game only to watch starter Carlos Zambrano surrender one-out hits to Gary Sheffield and Alex Rodriguez. Dusty Baker summoned Will Ohman to face Hideki Matsui, who sent a 2-0 pitch hurtling into the right field seats. The final was 9-6.

One night later, Chien-Ming Wang held the Cubs to one run and five hits over eight innings of an 8-1 Yankee win.  On Sunday, Alex Rodriguez’s two-RBI single capped a four-run fourth and the Yanks completed their sweep 6-3.

April 16, 2014. Weather forced the Cubs into a double-header as part of a four-game home-and-home series that year. Against a first place Yankee team in a third iteration of Yankee Stadium, the last place Cubs offense was as bad as it is possible to be. Masahiro Tanaka shut them out 3-0 on just three singles in the first game. In the second game, the Cubs tapped starter Michael Pineda and three relievers for six hits, but still couldn’t score. RBI singles by Brett Gardner in the fourth and Scott Sizemore in the fifth gave the Yankees all the runs they needed.

June 10-12, 2022. Jayson Heyward’s fifth inning home run created a 1-1tie that held until the 12th inning of the series opener. Then Cubs strategy entered brain lock. After Alec Mills retired the first two batters he faced, manager David Ross for some reason ordered an intentional walk to Aaron Hicks, who was hitting .230 at the time. Then the Cubs let Hicks – obviously carrying the winning run -- take second base without a throw. Pinch hitter Jose Trevino lined a game winning single into center field and said thank-you very much.

The next night was a pure, simple beat-down. Cub starter Matt Swarmer allowed six runs in five innings and Cubs hitters managed just five base hits off Jordan Montgomery and two relievers. Final: 8-0.

On Sunday afternoon, the Yankees continued their practice of showing the Cubs no mercy. Scoring five runs in the first inning off Keegan Thompson, they led 10-1 by the end of the third inning and won 18-4 behind Jameson Taillon.

July 7-9, 2023. For the first time in the history of the planet, the Cubs won a game at a place called Yankee Stadium. Taillon, who had so savagely dealt with the Cubs just one year earlier, shut out the Yankees on one hit – a first inning Gleyber Torres single -- for eight innings, Cody Bellinger’s third-inning homer provided all the offense Taillon would need in a 3-0 Cubs win.

The Yanks got revenge one day later when they laid into Drew Smyly for four runs - including Giancarlo Stanton and Josh Donaldson home runs - in a 6-3 outcome.

The Cubs trailed 4-1entering the seventh inning on Sunday afternoon when they erupted against the Yankees' pen. After starter Domingo Germain walked Ian Happ to start the inning, he was replaced by Ian Hamilton, the first of six Yankee relievers who would in short order surrender five runs – plus one credit against Germain -- on five hits and two walks. By dint of having recorded the final out of the seventh, Merryweather got credit for the 7-4 win.

Nobody knows what will happen this weekend. But if history is any judge – well let’s leave Judge out of it and hope for the best.