2026 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 25

TL;DR

The Cubs secured their ninth consecutive win, despite facing teams with poor records. However, injuries to key relievers and a top starter raise concerns as they prepare for upcoming challenges.

Key points

Cubs won their ninth consecutive game
Facing teams with poor records
Injuries to key relievers and a top starter
Strong offense and defense driving success
Concerns about bullpen performance

CubsMetsPhillies

Nine is divine! It sure wasn’t pretty. But in the end, that doesn’t really matter. The Cubs won their ninth consecutive game. It’s April, and so the two teams the Cubs faced in those nine games understandably have two of the worst records in baseball. For kicks, I pulled up MLB.com’s preseason baseball predictions for 2026. Their pick for the NL East? The Mets. In other choices? The Phillies were listed first. Baseball America? The Mets first followed by the Phillies with both making their playoff prediction. Two of their 10 writers had the Mets in the World Series (at this point, kudos to their one who had the Braves there).

My point is that we don’t know that both teams are bad, though certainly both are in disarray. There’s a lot of baseball to be played. This stretch of wins isn’t nothing. And it also doesn’t guarantee anything for anyone. I do suspect there is some residual value to sweeping a seven-game homestand. That can create some swagger and intimidation for teams coming in later. Is that worth a lot? No. But I also don’t think it’s nothing. I do think a team draws on the things they’ve done before. This team will remember ultimately prevailing even after the Phillies came off of the mat and fought back.

Obviously, it isn’t great that Caleb Thielbar appears to have been injured. It does appear that all four of the anticipated leverage relievers from opening day are now all hurt. Add to that the loss of Cade Horton, arguably the team’s best starter, and it is a scary development. At least in terms of all of those relievers, we expect them all back at some point.

The Cubs have been winning largely on the back of a very productive offense and a very strong defense. You won’t be able to find one stretch of games for any team in the league than the Cubs did. It was so striking that the few times the defense did let down, it was very striking. The seventh inning of this game was almost that way. The bullpen hasn’t had to do much. But today, they didn’t answer the bell when the Cubs needed them. I’m going to imagine that continues to be something they struggle with as they head west for the first time.