Cubs Week In Review: Cubs Arrive At Beginning Of End With Head-Scratching Week

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With the Cubs' 2024 season breathlessly galloping toward post-mortem, this week of baseball served as a stark reminder of where the team stands. Considerable success and expectations of the past ten years of this organization have made large swaths of the media and fanbase lose sight of the Cubs being "loveable losers" for a reason. All those reasons and more were on full display this past week for Chicago's North Side baseball team. Let's dive in to see how it all went down...

Image courtesy of © Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images

Supporters of this ball club lull themselves into a false sense of misery, so when a series plays out as it did this past week against the Los Angeles Dodgers, we don't quite know how to react. Starting their final West Coast swing of the season, the Cubs delivered their most surprising result of the year versus LA's National League team. It was more about former Dodgers than current ones in this contest, with Michael Busch and Cody Bellinger showing off to their previous employer in ways Cubs fans have been pining for. These two went a combined 6-9, including a couple of absolute moonshots into the seats of Dodger Stadium, one a solo blast, and one a two-run dinger. The Cubs' offensive explosion more than compensated for yet another pedestrian start from Kyle Hendricks, who went 4.1 innings and allowed two earned runs on four hits. 

Final Score: 10-4 Cubs

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When the book on this year's campaign is finished, it will say the Cubs couldn't score in May and June and thus missed the playoffs. Well, since August, they can score, and that's what helped them secure the series win against one of baseball's best. The underrated Seiya Suzuki did a fair share of the damage in this one, delivering clutch hits and an RBI. His mate on the mound, Shota Imanaga, pitched seven innings, which sounds like something he'd do, though he did surrender three earned runs and struck out just four. I guess a win is a win. 

Final Score: 6-3 Cubs

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As one of the hottest road teams in MLB, you might think the Cubbies swept Mookie Betts' squad, but they didn't. In somewhat of a see-saw battle that featured a furious four-run fifth-inning rally from the Cubs, the team that plays in America's third-oldest ballpark prevailed. You'll hear more about this later, but the Cubs' bullpen fumbled away at what had become a very winnable game. Though both clubs were lacking from a defensive standpoint, a plethora of stranded baserunners and missed opportunities determined the Cubbies' fate on a night where starter Jordan Wicks managed a less-than-modest three innings of work.

Final Score: 10-8 Dodgers

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The Cubs opened the weekend with a game about as much fun as getting assigned a term paper on a Friday night. Facing Kris Bryant's lowly Rockies, a team the Cubs swept at the outset of the season, Craig Counsell's club squandered a 5-0 lead late in the Mile High city. The Cub's delicate hopes for success in the second half have rested in the unsteady hands of a bullpen that previously had earned a reputation for mediocrity. Though a paltry 2-10 with RISP didn't help, Drew Smyly's performance helped even less. The Cub's 35-year-old lefty was taken out after pitching a third of an inning and giving up three runs against an opponent measurably inferior to his own club. 

Final Score: 9-5 Rockies

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The Cubs' next World Series roster will look eye-poppingly different from the current one, and barring the Cubbies succumbing to another mystical curse, the bullpen will be one of the most altered components of that club. At times unreliable and at times solid, Nate Pearson and Porter Hodge blew a consistent effort from the admirably steadfast Jameson Taillon. Jamo tossed six innings of two-run ball and was sufficiently backed up by his offense until the bullpen's latest implosion. Losing to bad teams sucks. Losing to those bad teams in extra innings sucks even worse. 

Final Score: 6-5 Rockies (10 innings)

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The Cubs salvaged the series' final game with a vintage Kyle Hendricks masterpiece. Due to his endearing leadership and humility, The Professor is one of my all-time favorite Cubs, so his struggles this season brought me no great joy. None of that mattered today as Hendricks sailed through six innings of two-hit baseball, punching out seven Rockies batters. Elsewhere, the offense, led by Michael Busch and Pete Crow-Armstrong, came through with enough clutch knocks to make the difference in this one. As this club's metric for success shifts to finishing above .500, the win served as catharsis.

Final Score: 6-2 Cubs

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With the last two weeks of the season upon us, the Cubs have one goal left: To finish with more wins than losses. With the remaining schedule, that looks doable. Up next, the Cubbies return home to face the Oakland Athletics for three before kicking off an extended four-game weekend series with the Washington Nationals. The winter looms large for this franchise if it wants to become a serious contender again. Nothing outside of changing the ballpark's name back to Weeghman Field should be off-limits to ensure this. Things are about to get interesting. 

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