Week In Review: Cubs Officially Eliminated from Postseason, Show Some Frustration

With the North Siders relegated to spectators this October, the rumbles of dissatisfaction escalated to a deafening roar this week. Team leader Jameson Taillon and skipper Craig Counsell themselves spoke up, trying to meet fans in their frustrated place. The Cubs are humiliatingly distant from serious playoff contention, and this week's results conveyed that sentiment without saying a word.

Game by Game: Monday
The modified goal for the season was to finish strong, and with the soon-to-be Las Vegas Athletics visiting the Friendly Confines for the first of a three-game series, the Cubs looked Herculean. The offense clicked. Dansby Swanson led the way with four RBIs, including a three-run blast in the second inning. The Cubs delivered clutch hits up and down the lineup, including a pair from Cody Bellinger, but yet again, staff ace Shota Imanaga drove the narrative. Punching out a career-high 11 batters, Imanaga scooped up his 14th win of the year with six, five-hit innings.

Final Score: 9-2 Cubs

Tuesday
Jordan Wicks was one of several Cubs arms hobbled by injury this year, preventing him from really getting into a groove. That was apparent in the second game of the A's series. Though he lasted five full innings, Wicks got seriously touched up, allowing four earned runs on seven hits, three of which were round-trippers. Wasted opportunities were the story offensively. Despite outhitting the Athletics 11 to 9, Chicago produced a scant 1-6 with RISP. One clean inning of work from Jack Neely was the lone bright spot in this contest. He'll be an object of some hope as the team builds its 2025 bullpen plan.

Final Score: 4-3 Athletics

Wednesday
Justin Steele bent and was broken in the rubber match of this interleague series. The Cubs' former All-Star got through just 2 2/3 innings in his return from the injured list, but proved to be far from his club's biggest concern. I'll just say it: Drew Smyly can't get off this team soon enough. In less than one full inning of work, Smyly surrendered two absolutely critical earned runs to doom his squad late. Championship teams do enough of the little things to manufacture runs and deliver clutch results when needed and this team lacks that quality. In fairness, though, championship teams also have a lot more talent than this. The Cubs dropped the series.

Final Score: 5-3 Athletics

Thursday
What's made Cubs baseball entertaining down this final month or so is an astonishing knack for putting up football-like run and hit totals. Game one of a four-game tilt versus the Washington Nationals was the latest occasion for a festival of scoring. Whether or not Bellinger remains a Cub heading into next season, he sure is fun to watch. He cashed three RBIs on a 2-4 day at the plate. Meanwhile, the bullpen, despite another poor outing from Smyly, did enough to help lock down the narrow victory.

Final Score: 7-6 Cubs

Friday
The increasingly outspoken Taillon picked up his 11th win of the year in game two of the long weekender. Tossing six two-hit innings, Taillon positioned his team for at least a spilt of this prolonged late-season series. Both teams' pitching staffs were greedy, as the Nationals and Cubs combined for 11 hits. Mike Tauchman delivered the decisive at-bat, a two-run knock in the seventh inning. Porter Hodge shut things down in the ninth and recorded two strikeouts.

Final Score: 3-1 Cubs

Saturday
On what presumably will be the last hot day in Chicago in 2024, the Cubs gave away a fantastically flashy bobblehead of Bellinger. Along with the italian beef you may have ordered from the 400-level concession stands, that was the best part of the game. Nats starting pitcher MacKenzie Gore no-hit the Cubs going into the seventh inning, until Patrick Wisdom broke things up with a solo homer to left field. That would be one of just two hits for the Cubs in this contest, which proved the final nail in a coffin the team had lain in since early summer. 

Final Score: 5-1 Nationals

Sunday
Though it presents itself as the hollow definition of a moral victory, I do think it's important for the club to finish above .500. The Cubs advanced that cause in the series finale. Until he starts winning some well-deserved accolades, there's not much else I can say about the brilliance of Shota Imanaga. He fired seven shutout innings, and looked sharp while doing so. Tauchman got the offense going early, with a solo shot in the first inning. Other key offensive contributions came from the team's other standout rookie, Michael Busch, who really does seem like one of the biggest steals for this club in recent memory. Though the win was watered down by the club's lack of a postseason berth (plus a couple hours' worth of rain), it still proved encouraging in identifying some of the squad's biggest strengths.

Final Score: 5-0 Cubs

The Chicago Cubs are six games away from a long, dark winter of work. First, though, they'll travel to Philadelphia for a three-game series with the Phillies, before coming home to Wrigley to end the season against the Cincinnati Reds. The future of this club is far more intriguing than its present. We're staring at a long road back to relevancy for the North Side's beloved professional baseball team. Cubs fans are left to hope the club does what's necessary to get there.