Cubs fans take fury out on Jon Berti after brutal Cardinals loss, Brewers surge

The Chicago Cubs' 2025 season may have hit a new low following the team's 3-2 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday night. With the loss to the Cardinals on Sunday, the Milwaukee Brewers gained even more ground on the Cubs in the National League Central race. The Brewers have won nine consecutive games and enter Monday with a 6-game lead over the Cubs in the division.

Desperate times have arrived for the Cubs, who entered the week of the MLB trade deadline as the best team in the National League. The week of the deadline dramatically altered the impression of the season, especially when key members of the front office have gone on record as saying 2025 isn't the sole focus of this year.

That had left Craig Counsell no choice but to pull each lever he had available to him, and on Sunday, one of those was using Jon Berti as a pinch-runner in the ninth inning. Berti, whose role on the team is tied to his speed, pinch ran for Ian Happ and served as the tying run of the game. With the Cubs' offense broken, Berti tried to force the issue and steal second base. Initially ruled safe, the Cardinals challenged the play, and the replay showed that Berti's hand ever so slightly lifted from the base as the tag was being applied.

As Cliff Floyd vented during the Cubs' Post-Game show, Berti was safe when he first slid into second base. Whether it was because of the "oven mitt" or not, the fact is that as a base runner, Berti did not do his job in terms of keeping his body engaged with the base.

Making things even worse for Berti and the Cubs is that on the very next pitch of the game, Nico Hoerner singled. A hit that almost certainly would have tied the game had Berti, again, done his job in terms of remaining engaged with second base on his steal attempt.

The Cubs have now lost 4 of their last 6 series, and they have a 5-game series against the Brewers looming next week. For a season that started with so much promise, this team is stumbling toward the finish line. Signs of this collapse had been present throughout the last two months, and instead of using the deadline to correct the ship, the organization's biggest move was a multi-year extension for a President of Baseball Operations who has yet to win a single postseason game. Oh, and closing food for thought, the Brewers have been 16 games better than the Cubs since Counsell arrived in Chicago.

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