The Cubs had a 4-1 lead to begin the eighth inning during Saturday’s game against the Cardinals and then everything went to shit. It’s not all on Pete Crow-Armstrong, but the center fielder made the biggest mistake that led to a 5-4 Cubs loss.
Absolutely unacceptable from PCA to come in and call off Nico Hoerner, who was camped under a pop up that would have ended the top of the eighth inning with the Cubs still ahead 4-2. Instead, Crow-Armstrong called off the Cubs second baseman and then failed to make the catch. He wasn’t close and the Cardinals scored two runs to the game.
That entire eighth inning was terrible after terrible play by the Cubs. Rookie reliever Porter Hodge has been awesome this year, but he allowed consecutive runners to reach base via walk and then hit-by-pitch. Then, the Cardinals scored their first run in the eighth thanks to an Isaac Paredes throwing error from third base on a play where he had no chance at the runner going to first base.
In the ninth inning the Cardinals scored the game-winning run after Tommy Pham tripled to left field to start the inning and then scored on a sac-fly.
The Cubs are barely hanging on to any playoff hopes they have and what looked like a fourth straight win and the third consecutive victory over the Cardinals turned into one of the most miserable and gut-punching losses of the year. This team simply cannot afford to just give away any wins and that’s exactly what they did Saturday afternoon.
