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

1.) Monday, April 8: San Diego Padres 9 - Chicago Cubs 8

This was not only the worst blown game of the year, it was one of the worst regular season losses in Cubs history. That Monday night at Petco Park stuck with fans all season and was in a way a precursor of what was to come in 2024.

Cubs fans were having fun when their team jumped out to an early 8-0 lead, tagging old friend Yu Darvish pretty good. The Cubs bats were spraying hits all over the ballpark and Javier Assad was in cruise control through five. Heading into the bottom of the sixth inning, the Cubs had a 99% chance to win the game. Then, things fell apart...quickly.

Assad gave up a walk and a homer to Jake Cronenworth, ending his night. 8-2, no biggie right? Well, in came Jose Cuas (remember him?) and what would follow was three straight hits, an RBI groundout, and another hit. With the score now 8-5, Counsell pulled Cuas for Luke Little. With two outs, Xander Bogaerts hit a two-run homer to make it 8-7. Uh...well, they still have the lead. Little and Neris got through the seventh unscathed, then came the fateful bottom of the eighth. Neris, still pitching, walked the leadoff man and got a flyout. Counsell went to Alzolay for a five-out save. He got Bogaerts to fan, setting up one on and two outs for Fernando Tatis Jr.

Wham. Tatis stood and watched the ball sail over the left field wall to give the Padres a 9-8 lead. The Cubs had one shot to tie or re-take the lead in the top of the ninth but went down in order. Unbelievable. The crazy thing is since it was a West Coast game, many fans had gone to bed when it was 8-0, only to wake up and see what had happened.

Jed, figure the bullpen out for 2025. We can't keep doing this.