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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 15

Photo by Matt Dirksen/Chicago Cubs/Getty Images It was a bummer of a day as the Cubs lose 6-2. The start to this season has been so exceptional that this game is a weird feeling. The Cubs did show a brief sign of life in the fourth inning and the game was tied after four. This game was all Rangers, though. Shōta Imanaga had an uncharacteristically bad day. He allowed a couple of homers and...2025
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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 14

Photo by Geoff Stellfox/Getty Images The Cubs offense never quits in a 10-6 win over the Rangers. The beat rolls on. The Cubs offense has been a largely unstoppable force in the early going. It posted 10 more runs in this one. Once again, there were contributions up and down the lineup. The Cubs had 12 hits by six players. They also drew six walks and had a hit batter. Eight different Cub...2025
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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 13

Photo by Abigail Dean/Getty Images Steele dominates in a 7-0 Cubs win. In the nine years now that I’ve been writing Heroes and Goats, and with the assistance of social media, the strangest thing I’ve learned is that some number of you experience your fandom by being angry a lot. There is some amount of frustration and lashing out that is part of the way you consume the baseball season. On...2025
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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 12

Photo by Geoff Stellfox/Getty Images The Cubs fade away in an 8-7 loss to the Padres. I’ve written many times about glass half full/glass half empty. Your mileage may vary, but my glass is still overflowing. In the last nine days, the Cubs played eight games. They won six of them. Definitely should have won another and probably should have won this one too. This one will get lumped in wit...2025
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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 11

Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images The Cubs stay red-hot with a 7-1 win, their fifth straight. It’s crazy to imagine given the rough schedule to start this season, but the Cubs have stormed out of the gate. They sit one terrible inning shy of seven consecutive wins. The A’s probably will finish well short of the playoff picture. The Diamondbacks and Padres, who bookended that A’s ser...2025
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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 10

Photo by Matt Dirksen/Chicago Cubs/Getty Images The Cubs escape with a 3-1 victory for their fourth straight win. For three days in Sacramento to start the week, the Cubs battered the A’s. Against a lesser team, they basically made it look easy. But coming home to great the Padres, winners of seven straight to start the season, they were significantly stepping up in class. This wasn’t the...2025
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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 15
2025

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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 14
2025

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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 8

Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images Takin’ care of business: Cubs win 7-4. You know you’ve officially settled into the season when you get to that first ordinary win. Nothing spectacular. Nothing feels new about it. You didn’t overcome and kind of adversity. You looked at the schedule and the matchups. You thought, that could be competitive, but I think we’ll win. And then you just ...2025
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• BCB roundtable: 2025 Cubs season preview

Getty Images A discussion of the season to come from the BCB staff. BCB’s front-page writers have done several of these roundtable discussions previewing Cubs seasons and postseasons, so here we are again to kick off the 2025 season. Josh, Sara, Thomas, Duane and I had a lively online conversation Wednesday afternoon. The online chat has been lightly edited for clarity. Ashley was unable ...2025
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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 2

Photo by Masterpress/Getty Images The Cubs were swept by the Dodgers in Tokyo. An early season heavy sigh. Probably not going to be the last one before May either. If you paid attention this offseason, you are probably aware that the Cubs schedule is incredibly front loaded. At least if last season is predictive of this season. On paper, the Cubs have a harder March/April schedule than an...2025
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• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 153

Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images Cubs overcome more bullpen woes in 7-6 win. The Cubs bullpen tried to carbon copy Sunday’s game. After the Cubs and Nationals matched a run each in the first and two each in the third, the Cubs took a 5-3 lead with two in the fifth. Shawn Armstrong started the sixth and it didn’t go well. He faced four hitters and allowed three hits. The only thing that k...2024
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• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 150

David Banks-Imagn Images The Cubs return home with a 9-2 pounding of the A’s. The Cubs came back home and the offense got into gear quickly. Putting together a team isn’t some literal chemistry equation or evenly a math equation. But it’s hard not to think the team needs another catalyst or two. The last half of this year has seen an explosive offense, except when the offense is missing in...2024
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• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 148

Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images The Cubs falter late, losing 6-5 to the Rockies. This feeling this morning, it’s different than it has been in a while. The beauty of an in-season vacation is that I was out of contact during the Cleveland series. Because of that, I’m having trouble remembering the last time that things were so frustrating that I’m looking for where the ride ends so th...2024
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• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 141

Photo by Matt Dirksen/Chicago Cubs/Getty Images The Cubs come up empty in a 3-0 loss to Anthony Rizzo and the Yankees. The Cubs were so happy to see their old pal Anthony Rizzo that they rolled over and played dead to give his team a win. Not really, but it might as well have been true. It was a generally well played game and neither team was able to generate a whole lot of offense. Unfort...2024
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• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 138

Photo by Matt Dirksen/Chicago Cubs/Getty Images The Cubs return home from a terrific trip with a disappointing 5-3 loss. Last night’s game was simultaneously totally predictable and a little shocking to me. After an 8-1 road trip, a letdown game was so completely foreseeable. I essentially wrote about it yesterday. It isn’t surprising and it isn’t per se the gambler’s paradox. A team isn’...2024
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• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 148
2024

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• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 117

Photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images The Cubs win 8-2 to take the series from the Twins. I mean no disrespect to the Twins, but when I was looking into them ahead of this series, I saw a team that has feasted on bad teams with an unusual fervor. On the one hand, all you can do is beat the team in the other dugout. This isn’t college football and you aren’t lining up cupcakes to boost your...2024
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2025
"Rizzo Award Standings: (Top 5/Bottom 5) Kyle Tucker +10 Shōta Imanaga +9 Matthew Boyd +6 Jon Berti/Miguel Amaya +4 6 Players -3 Matt Shaw -6 Ben Brown -8 Up Next: Game two of the three game series is Tuesday night."

2024
"Rizzo Award Cumulative Standings: (Top 3/Bottom 3) The award is named for Anthony Rizzo, who finished first in this category three of the first four years it was in existence and four times overall."

2023
"195) Yesterday’s winners: Cody Bellinger (Game 1) and Hayden Wesneski (Game 2) - [Superhero is 91-44] Rizzo Award Cumulative Standings: (Top 5/Bottom 5) The award is named for Anthony Rizzo, who finished first in this category three of the first four years it was in existence and four times overall."

2022
"123) Rizzo Award Cumulative Standings: (Top 3/Bottom 3) The award is named for Anthony Rizzo, who finished first in this category three of the first four years it was in existence and four times overall."

• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 15
2025

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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 7

Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images The Cubs pummel the A’s as they open their new home. On Sunday, the Cubs missed an opportunity to have a signature win. They could have taken three of four from a legitimate playoff contender, in their ballpark and even the season record at three wins and three losses. We’ve seen so many bullpen collapses in recent years, particularly early season ones, that it...2025
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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 6

Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images Fright Show: The Cubs bullpen immolates in Arizona. You always know there are going to be games like this. There are always going to be some games that you should have won and let get away and some games that you should have lost and flip the script. In and of itself, I don’t lose more than a moment’s thought about a game like this. So many things. Every ye...2025
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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 5

Photo by Chris Coduto/Getty Images A thoroughly entertaining Cubs win. I’d like to thank the Cubs for playing a terrific game. A little behind the scenes, I went to bed Friday night rather than stay up with the Cubs game. I was up a little before 6 locally in Florida to write about Friday night’s Diamondbacks beatdown of the Cubs. I had a long day here that included a local renaissance fai...2025
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• BCB roundtable: 2025 Cubs season preview
2025

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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 2
2025

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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 1

Photo by Kenta Harada/Getty Images A tough start against perhaps the game’s toughest opponents. Welcome back, baseball, my old friend. As long-suffering Cubs fans, we know that this can be a very fickle friend. That was definitely the case in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. For one of the rare times where baseball is concerned, I really appreciated my move to the east coast. This game st...2025
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• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 161

Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images A magical sendoff for a Cubs legend in a 3-0 win. What a day. We all have so many memories of Kyle Hendricks. Obviously, he started some of the most significant games in modern Cubs history, a statement that can be made without even an ounce of hyperbole. He started the deciding games of both the NLCS and the World Series in 2016, dominating the Dodgers ...2024
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• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 160

Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images The Cubs record their 82nd win in a 1-0 shutout. That game had to make Cubs fans of a certain age remember games of the 60’s and 70’s. The Reds got a complete game with one run allowed. That’s going to win a game, what, 90 percent of the time? Probably more. Five hits, no walks. Tough break, sir. He allowed one double and it cost him. At 34 years of ag...2024
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• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 150
2024

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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 15
2025

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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 14
2025

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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 13
2025

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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 12
2025

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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 11
2025

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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 10
2025

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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 9

Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images The Cubs wear out the A’s and sweep series with a 10-2 victory. When I said that I thought this Cubs team would win 91 games, I was thinking of the team that spent the last three days terrorizing the A’s in Sacramento. The facility might have been a minor league one, but the performance was very much a major league team. A very good major league team. This t...2025
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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 8
2025

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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 7
2025

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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 6
2025

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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 7
2025

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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 6
2025

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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 5
2025

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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 4

Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images Snake bitten: Cubs lose 8-1! It will forever amaze me how good a team can look one day and how bad the next. In this case, that would refer to the offense only. Obviously, the pitching has been sluggish to start the 2025 campaign, save for those innings worked by Shōta Imanaga in Japan. Games like Friday night are the origin of the quote about momentum and t...2025
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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 1
2025

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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Intro to the season

Photo by Gene Wang/Getty Images Just what exactly is Heroes and Goats? Here’s an overview. For those of you who have followed Heroes and Goats for one or more years, welcome back! To those of you who are new here, welcome. Hopefully, you’ll give this space a chance. There are a number of loyal followers of this section who come back year after year and engage with this material. Hopefully,...2025
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• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 161
2024

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• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 157

Eric Hartline-Imagn Images The Cubs were overpowered in the opener in Philly and lose 6-2. The Cubs were roadkill in Philadelphia Monday night. This isn’t a giant surprise. With 53 wins, the Phillies have more wins at home than any other team. This is their final home series of the season and they’ve now clinched the National League East title. They are half a game behind the Dodgers for t...2024
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• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 148
2024

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• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 146

Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images The Cubs lose a wild one, 10-8. It’s possible some of us are going to diverge on our impressions of this one. In my head, this team played itself out of contention before the trade deadline. The last road trip for this team did, at least for a moment, put the Cubs on the periphery of the playoff picture. But even then, they were facing a decent gap, t...2024
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• 2023 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 136

Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images For the second game, the Reds rally in the ninth to beat the Cubs. Heavy sigh, part two. I’m invoking early day game after a night game formation. As in, an abridged Heroes and Goats today. I’m going to give you bullet points rather than a full narrative. The Cubs lost consecutive games for the first time since August 13 and 15 against the Blue Jays and W...2023
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• 2023 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 1
Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images Hope springs eternal! Welcome back for the 10th season of Heroes and Goats. I can remember back to 2014 when Al Yellon asked the Bleed Cubbie Blue faithful if any of them had ideas for new features. Me? I wouldn’t describe myself as particularly creative. But I well remember when Russ La Croix conceived Heroes and Goats. I was from the beginning a fan o...2023
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• 2023 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 19
David Banks-USA TODAY Sports The nearly perfect one Nothing like a little afternoon baseball on in the background while you are finishing your work day. By the time I got off of an afternoon call, the Cubs were already battering Dodgers starter Julio Urias. I tuned in just in time for the top of the third, as Drew Smyly was recording his fifth and sixth consecutive strikeouts. Sometimes yo...2023
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• 2023 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 138

David Banks-USA TODAY Sports Justin Steele dominates in a holiday 5-0 win. It was a long holiday weekend for me here in the Tampa area. I had an old friend in town and Sunday night was a very late night. There were a few drinks and only a few hours of sleep. I appreciate you all bearing with me while I gave you somewhat abridged versions of Heroes and Goats the last couple of days. The C...2023
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• 2022 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 162
Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images The Cubs win going away to close out the season All’s well that ends well, right? That probably doesn’t work here. But, I’m certainly glad this season ended with a win, and an emphatic one at that. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t mean anything. Not losing 90, winning more than last year, none of it actually means anything. Nothing you can hang you...2022
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• 2023 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 64
Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/MLB Photos via Getty Images Class dismissed! Kyle is vintage Professor in a 4-0 win Some of you might not remember, but when your team wins back-to-back games, that’s called a winning streak. Yeah, it’s not really that long. Somehow, they won two straight against the Rays. I mean, not really just “somehow.” This team basically has one way it wins games: A domina...2023
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• 2023 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 116

Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports Back in the win column in Toronto with 6-2 win. I have just one hope. Let’s hope the Cubs don’t become one of “those” teams. You know, the kind of team that beats the good teams but then does less than exceptional against the lesser teams. Instead, I like to think that the core of the Mets team that was put together with an eye on getting back to the World ...2023
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• 2023 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 53
David Banks-USA TODAY Sports A win! An impressive one at that! Well, here in the Heroes and Goats department of Bleed Cubbie Blue, this was hands down the performance of the year. Long time followers of this series know that at the end of the year, I bring you a list of top 10 and a bottom 10 games by WPA. I track scores +/- .400. To date, there had been no scores over .400. I certainly w...2023
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1. White Sox

2. World Series

3. Red Sox

. . .

733. Rizzo Award

• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 25

Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images The Cubs sweep the Astros to close a successful homestand. Every season is an entity onto its own. You watch enough seasons and they start to feel like one long homogenous mass. But when you sort them out, or more specifically when one is going on, you can really feel that individuality. And so, as we sit in front of this currently unfolding season, th...2024
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• 2022 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 109
Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports Cubs rally late only to falter and lose 6-5 I quit playing fantasy baseball somewhere between 15 and 20 years ago. Somewhere around that time, I also quit playing Strat-O-Matic baseball. When I ceased those activities, I basically stopped paying attention with any detail as to the comings and goings of any particular roster or players. I’m overtly aware o...2022
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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 15
2025

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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 14
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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 13
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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 12
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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 11
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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 10
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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 9
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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 8
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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 7
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• 2025 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 6
2025

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• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 141
2024

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• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 138
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• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 117
2024

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• 2024 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 113

Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images The Cubs fail to protect their lead and lose 5-4. Heavy sigh. Once again, the Cubs had things in position to win a game and let it get away. That will be the enduring memory of this season. The crushing number of blown leads late has derailed this team over and over again. The Cubs had the opportunity to get back to three under .500. The last time they r...2024
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• 2023 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 156

Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports A three-game sweep sets up a fight to the finish. As easy as one, two, three! Okay, well, it wasn’t easy. But, the Cubs took care of a woeful (on the road) Rockies team in business-like fashion. This season has been so many things that we don’t always see from the Cubs. I’ve talked about it several times regarding their ability to come off the mat and rebound...2023
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• 2023 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 145

Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports The Cubs fumble the lead late, but bounce back to win 5-4. In the moment, I suspect Jordan Wicks would tell you that winning a game and the march towards the playoffs is what matters. That’s the right thing to say and is admirable. At the end of the day, it is a team sport. You win as a team and you win at a lose. It isn’t about individual accomplishments...2023
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• 2023 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 86
Kayla Wolf-USA TODAY Sports The Cubs come up short in Milwaukee. Sometimes I give you a narrative after the game Sometimes, I’m more a series of thoughts. Today is one of those. As I did yesterday, I’m going to steer a little away from the bigger picture implications of this game and the season to date. None of that is shocking, new territory or any great insight I’m going to give you. Th...2023
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• 2023 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 64
2023

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• 2023 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 1
2023

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• 2022 Cubs Heroes and Goats; Game 135
Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports Cubs pound Reds 9-3 in their return home to Wrigley Field. We say “baseball happened” when some lousy team beats one of the better teams. That scenario plays itself out basically every day somewhere across baseball. The reality that it is hard to sweep a series leads to these outcomes. It’s essentially a baseball meme to hold up what is essentially an exc...2022
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