Ranking the 5 most painful games blown late by the 2024 Cubs

2.) Saturday, August 3: St. Louis Cardinals 5 - Chicago Cubs 4

In a series in which the Cubs took three out of four from their biggest rivals at home, the one loss was very painful. Normally taking three of four is a big accomplishment, but the Cubs were in a position where they kind of had to sweep all four considering their position in the standings.

The Cubs took an early 4-1 lead by the end of the second inning. Jameson Taillon pitched six strong innings and things were looking good. With the score remaining 4-1 in the eighth, Porter Hodge came in and gave up a walk and hit a batter to put two on, one out. Paul Goldschmidt hit a bullet to center, but it landed in Pete Crow-Armstrong's glove. Hodge got Brendan Donovan to hit a slow grounder to third, but Isaac Paredes made an ill-advised throw and it went wild, allowing a run to score.

With Chicago clinging to a 4-3 lead, Nolan Arenado stepped up. The Cardinals third baseman popped up a ball to shallow center on a 1-1 pitch. Cubs fans sighed in relief as Hoerner drifted under it - but at the last second, Crow-Armstrong called him off, sliding to try and make the catch. The ball dropped in and St. Louis tied the ballgame on what should have ended the inning.

A rookie moment that came at an awful time. The Cubs got out of the inning tied, but they could not re-take the lead in the bottom of the eighth and Neris came in and gave up a leadoff triple to Tommy Pham and sac fly to Lars Nootbar in the top of the ninth. The Cubs went down quietly in the bottom of the ninth.

(Dis)honorable mentions:

Before getting to number one, there are PLENTY of others that did not quite make the list...but probably could have.

• Opening Night: Rangers 4 - Cubs 3
• Tuesday, April 16: Diamondbacks 12 - Cubs 11
• Thursday, May 2: Mets 7 - Cubs 6
• Saturday, May 25: Cardinals 7 - Cubs 6
• Tuesday, June 11: Rays 5 - Cubs 2
• Monday, June 24: Giants 5 - Cubs 4
• Saturday, September 14: Rockies 5 - Cubs 4

And now, *drum roll* for the number one worst blown game of the year: