Boo Birds Sing as Cubs Drop 8th Straight at Home – 3 Takeaways

The Chicago Cubs — just weeks ago winners of 15 straight at Wrigley Field — have now lost eight in a row on their home turf.

The Cubs (32-30) dropped a second straight game to the visiting and sub .500 Athletics (30-32), losing 5-4 in 10 innings on Wednesday night. They are now 3-14 in their last 17 games, and sit 6.5 games behind first-place Milwaukee in the NL Central standings.

Here are three things we learned from what could have been a get-right game for the Cubs:

Déjà Vu

For the second night in a row, the Cubs sent the top of the order to the plate with the chance to walk it off.

For the second night in a row, they came up agonizingly short.

It was in Tuesday’s opener that all signs pointed toward a seventh walk-off victory of the season, and a chance to start the month on the right foot. Nico Hoerner and Pete Crow-Armstrong notched back-to-back hits to begin the inning. The Cubs had their heart of the order — Alex Bregman, Seiya Suzuki, and Ian Happ — due up. The three went down in order, and the game was over as quickly as the rally started.

Wednesday’s circumstances were only slightly different. It was the 10th, and Kevin Alcantara stood on second base as a ghost runner. Hoerner’s flyout to center moved Alcantara over.

Crow-Armstrong struck out. Bregman came inches from tying the game on a grounder down the left field line that was foul. He straightened it out, but lined it right to A’s right fielder Lawrence Butler to end the game.

Boos rang out and seeped through the microphones on the broadcast. The Cubs were walk-off winners six times in the first two months of the season. Now, they can hardly buy a win as it stands.

MLB’s Very Worst

The Cubs, once again, struggled with runners in scoring position.

Is that surprising? Not really.

It’s become the theme of this terrible stretch. On Wednesday, they were 2-for-11 with RISP and left six men on base. The Athletics, on the other hand, went 3-for-7. They maximized their situational hitting, and it paid off.

The numbers confirm it. The Cubs, hitting .221 with RISP, are worst in MLB in those situations.

They hit .217 as a team in May and are hitting .197 in the first two games of the A’s series. Suzuki, hitting .123 with RISP on the season, is MLB’s worst qualified hitter in that category. Dansby Swanson (.145) is fifth-worst, and Bregman (.194) rounds out the league’s lowest 25.

“We’re not playing well enough to win a lot of baseball games,” manager Craig Counsell told reporters following the game on Wednesday. “You have to earn it, and we’re not earning it.”

Craig Counsell on the Cubs’ stretch: “We’re not winning a lot of baseball games right now … and we’re not playing well enough to win a lot of baseball games. You have to earn it and we’re not earning it.” pic.twitter.com/JVMEaImXMJ

— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) June 4, 2026

A Positive (If You’re in the Mood): PCA’s Groove

Amidst the chaos of the Cubs’ streaky May and despite his final at-bat Wednesday, Crow-Armstrong has been enjoying a scorching hot stretch at the plate.

Crow-Armstrong collected two hits in Tuesday’s 2-1 loss to prop up an otherwise lackluster team performance, and he picked up right where he left off on Wednesday night.

With the Cubs down a run in the 3rd inning, Crow-Armstrong golfed a go-ahead, two-run shot into the right field bleachers for his eighth long ball of the season.

The 24-year-old center fielder has undoubtedly been Chicago’s biggest offensive spark over the last few weeks, and the numbers prove it.

In his last 15 games, Crow-Armstrong is slashing .273/.369/.491 (.860 OPS).

In his last seven, he’s been even hotter, slashing .367/.424/.667 (1.091 OPS). He’s hitting the ball hard (95+ mph exit velocity) 63% of the time.

Those are all the signs of the elite bat that Crow-Armstrong can be for the Cubs. When he’s really feeling it, he’s the team’s two-way cheat code — and that’s absolutely the key to the Cubs playing winning baseball.

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