The Cubs were given a reality check against the White Sox

The Cubs ended their nine-game road trip with a thud as they lost to the Chicago White Sox 8-7 in 10 innings on Sunday. The Cubs ended their road trip with a disappointing 3-6 record. They still have a 1.5 game lead over the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers, against whom the Cubs play a crucial three-game series starting on Monday at Wrigley Field.

The Cubs finished with a familiar, infuriating storyline: runners in scoring position, opportunities everywhere, and nothing to show for it. The Cubs went 2-for-15 with runners in scoring position and stranded 13 total runners on base over the course of the 10-inning thriller.

Every time the scoring opportunity came up, the Cubs slammed it shut on themselves. This is becoming a disturbing pattern. A team that tightens up when the leverage rises. A lineup that can get on base but can’t deliver the knockout punch. It puts immense pressure on hitting coach Dustin Kelly as to why things have not improved at all.

And when you can’t hit in big spots, you need your pitching to hold. The Cubs didn’t get that either on Sunday.

Starter Colin Rea held a 4-1 lead entering the fourth inning. But he hit Miguel Vargas and surrendered an RBI double to Andrew Benintendi. Then in the fifth, Vargas hit a game-tying, two-run double with two outs, ending Rea’s outing. Rea’s season ERA is now at 4.98 with a 1.43 WHIP over 47 total innings pitched.

After both Jacob Webb and Hoby Milner came in and shut down the White Sox, Counsell pulled Milner and put in Phil Maton with one out in the bottom of the eighth. Maton quickly recorded the second out. But he issued a walk and surrendered a single to put two runners aboard, and Tristan Peters jumped on an 85 mph sweeper and launched a three-run home run to break the 4-4 tie. It was the first major league home run of Peters’ career.

His stats after Sunday’s game paint a hollow picture.

• ERA: 9.49
• Innings pitched: 12.1
• Hits allowed: 16
• Earned Runs: 13
• Walks: 6
• Strikeouts: 16

After tying the game thanks to Michael Conforto’s three-run homer and taking the lead in the top of the tenth, Ryan Rolison was thrust into a high‑leverage spot after closer Daniel Palencia pitched in the ninth. But he gave up a walk-off 2-run home run to catcher Edgar Quero.

It was a brutal ending, but not a surprising one.

The spotlight is now solely on Jed Hoyer

Craig Counsell deserves much scrutiny over how he handled pitchers on Sunday. But to be fair, the man who is responsible, Jed Hoyer, deserves more tough questions and needs to be in the spotlight. Counsell does not have much to work with.

This organization has spent years avoiding building a real pitching infrastructure under his leadership. He continues to patch bullpens together with short‑term journeymen like Maton, Hector Neris, and Ryan Pressley with terrible results. Ironically. All three have pitched with the Houston Astros in the past, which is a disturbing trend.

Maton signed a 2-year, $14.5 million guaranteed contract with a club option for 2028. The Cubs can’t send him down to the minors nor release him and eat the remainder of his contract like they did with Pressley.

Meanwhile, the starting pitching outside of Shota Imanaga, Edward Cabrera, and Ben Brown is not reliable. Both Rea and Taillon are both on borrowed time. Hoyer has prioritized “safer” college bats in the draft, albeit with great success. But it has left the Cubs with no reinforcements available in their farm system anytime soon.

They were given a reality check from the ascending White Sox during the Crosstown Series. They can no longer hide their lack of improvement in both situational hitting and pitching. Unless Hoyer changes his approach, games like this will keep happening.

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