2026 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 29

And with that, we are well into the grind of the 2026 season. To this point, the Cubs hadn’t yet lost three straight. But the combo of a battered pitching staff, their 11th game in 11 days, and their fourth straight game against elite opposition turned out to be just too much for the Cubs. As it turns out, two weeks ago, the Cubs hadn’t won three straight either. As it is, right now, the second longest winning streak of the year for the Cubs is two. And the third longest is one. So it’s been a weird distribution of wins and losses through the first 29 games of the season. Weird distribution or no, the team is 17-12. As we sit here today, 17-12 feels a little unsatisfying. This is true largely because the team had won 10 straight before this three-game losing streak.

To be fair, this game was quite a bit different than the two losses in Los Angeles. In those two games, the Dodgers offense pummeled them in one and the Dodgers pitching shut them out in the other. Those were lopsided losses. But this one was largely competitive throughout. The Cubs were down three early and four late. But, they scored seven runs between the second and ninth innings. So at minimum, it felt like they at least had a puncher’s chance.

Ironically, this one started to feel hopeless as the bullpen withered yet again. It felt hopeless because Mason Miller had only pitched once over the last three days and was almost certainly available to throw. He hadn’t allowed a run since last August and had recently set a record for most consecutive scoreless innings as a Padre. A hit tip to Mason, reliever or no, that’s an impressive accomplishment. I also hate to see a streak like that stopped in part by what looked like a wildly blown call on a ball down the line. The Cubs managed to go on and score two runs, ending Miller’s streak and made the game go down to the last batter.

You’ll pardon me if I don’t lose sleep over the blown call in the ninth. In the fifth inning, Ben Brown pretty clearly appeared to have thrown strike three at a time when it would have ended the inning while the Cubs were still leading. They went on to allow two runs in the inning. More importantly, it had a ripple effect on how the Cub bullpen was utilized. Ben Brown had to face two extra hitters and then only threw two innings. He’d thrown more than two innings about 40 percent of the time previously. Had he been more efficient, maybe he goes back out for one more inning.