(670 The Score) A season that carried promise for the Cubs just weeks ago will end in sour, disappointing fashion.
While playing their game against the Brewers on Saturday evening, the Cubs were eliminated from playoff contention by virtue of the Marlins' win against the Pirates. The Cubs had entered the day with a tragic number of one, meaning any loss of their own or Marlins win in the final days of the regular season would eliminate Chicago from playoff contention. The Cubs were 82-78 entering play Saturday, while the Marlins improved to 84-76 with their victory.
That Cubs' elimination from the postseason race capped a disastrous three-plus weeks. After earning an 8-2 win against the Giants on Sept. 6, the Cubs sat at 76-64. They were 1.5 games behind the Brewers in the NL Central race and held the second wild-card spot, 3.5 games ahead of the Marlins and four games ahead of the Diamondbacks. At that time, the Cubs' odds to reach the playoffs hovered around 92%, according to Fangraphs.
Everything went downhill from there, as the Cubs were swept by the Diamondbacks in a three-game series at Wrigley Field to start a stretch in which they went 6-14 through Friday night. Eventually, the Diamondbacks and Marlins each passed the sliding Cubs in the wild-card standings.
While the Cubs weren't considered championship contenders by anyone, they did believe they could compete at a high level in the playoffs.
"We're not here to compete or to like just to hang out and (be) like, 'Hey, that was pretty good,'" Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner said on the Parkins & Spiegel Show on Sept. 19. "That's not what this is for. That's not the standard of what this organization should be. That's not what the guys in the clubhouse are going for. There are multiple guys in there that have won it all, and they're not taking anything away from, 'Hey, we're over .500' or things like that. Obviously, you take progress and take things trending in the right direction – that doesn't go unnoticed. But we're absolutely here to win. We have a roster that I believe in, character that I believe in and that's what we're here to do. If the standard is anything less than that, then I don't think it ever happens."
The Cubs haven't made the playoffs since 2020, when the regular season was shortened to 60 games due to the pandemic and labor strife. Chicago hasn't made the postseason in a full season since 2018, when it lost in the wild-card round when it was still a one-game playoff. The Cubs haven't advanced a round in the playoffs since 2017, when they beat the Nationals in the NL Division Series before losing to the Dodgers in the NL Championship Series.
