I decided to begin this yearly series of end-of-year games with the worst ones today and go on to the greatest ones tomorrow.
Blowout losses have been the subject of this topic in previous years that I’ve done this retrospective. Not at this moment. There were a number of heartbreaking losses in 2023, some of which contributed to the Cubs’ collapse in September.
Proceed, if you dare. The order of these is chronological.
May 17: Cubs 6, Astros 7.
After three innings, the Cubs led 6-1 primarily because of three home runs. Seiya Suzuki scored two home runs, and Christopher Morel also reached base.
Into the bottom of the eighth inning, the Cubs maintained this lead. Adbert Alzolay threw a scoreless seventh inning, and Drew Smyly, who pitched admirably during the first half of 2023, threw six innings and allowed one run.
Mark Leiter Jr., who had thrown rather effectively before, took a beating. After Jeremy Peña hit a triple to start the game, Alex Bregman doubled him to make the score 6-2. The next two batters, including the formidable Yordan Alvarez, were struck out by Leiter, but Jose Abreu singled in Bregman, making the score 6-3.
Yes, Jose Abreu, who came in that evening with an OPS of.532.
As you are reading about this game right now, you must already know the answer to it. The closing task was handed to Keegan Thompson. Jake Meyers hit a home run and Yainer Diaz singled to make the score 6-5. Three pitches were needed for that. After then, Brandon Hughes entered the game and Mauricio Dubon was walked by Thompson. That was ineffective since Hughes gave Peña a double. They purposefully walked Bregman in order to load the bases. At the plate, Alvarez hit into a force play.
