The Chicago Cubs snapped a four-year playoff drought with a sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates, but their celebration was short-lived. Less than 72 hours later, Craig Counsell’s team has stumbled, dropping three straight games to the Cincinnati Reds. What looked like a promising September has turned into concern, as a sudden pitching collapse threatens to derail the Cubs’ postseason momentum before it even begins.

The timing couldn’t be worse. The Reds are clawing for a playoff spot, and Saturday’s win pulled them within a game of the New York Mets for the final National League Wild Card berth. Meanwhile, the Cubs still hold a four-game cushion over the San Diego Padres for the top Wild Card seed, but that margin is shrinking. The stakes are clear: home-field advantage in the Wild Card round—opening at Wrigley Field versus traveling to Petco Park—hangs in the balance with just seven regular-season games left.

On Marquee Sports Network, Floyd delivered a stark assessment of the Cubs’ pitching woes: “When you think about giving up 8 homers in 2 nights, you ain’t winning nothing. That’s just something where you have to get past that, get to tomorrow, get that game over with, hopefully with a dub, get back home, finish these six out with everybody doing whatever they have to do to get on track for those first three of the wild card, whatever you may be. At this point, you’re home. But if they don’t figure out and something crazy happens, you’d be getting on a plane and flying somewhere which you don’t want to do for those three.”

The pitching breakdown happened throughout the Cincinnati series, when Cubs relievers were especially bad at giving up home runs. Porter Hodge took the most damage in the Cubs’ 7-4 loss on Friday. In the sixth inning, Spencer Steer and Elly De La Cruz hit back-to-back home runs that broke a 4-4 tie and sealed the Cubs’ destiny. The two home runs in a row raised Hodge’s ERA to 6.27, which all but ended his chances of making the postseason squad. And it continued…

The Reds won 6-3 on Saturday, hitting five home runs—three off starter Shota Imanaga and two off the bullpen. The bullpen’s problems over the two nights led to the eight home runs Floyd talked about. Despite using a six-man rotation with Javier Assad, the pitching staff continues to struggle.

The Cubs skipper didn’t shy away from acknowledging the struggles. “Well, we’ve lost,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said after Saturday night’s defeat. “I mean, the first night we had a great game pitched against us. I don’t think we swung the bats great the last two nights, and I don’t think we’ve pitched great the last two nights. So that’s about it.”

The Cubs say they haven’t let up even though they’ve already made the playoffs. Michael Busch, who hit 30 home runs this season, stressed that the squad is still focused as they move into the final stretch. He stated, “Still got seven games left to play and some pretty big ones for us.”

Craig Counsell must fix these pitching woes, or they’ll risk entering the playoffs as a wounded team rather than a confident wild-card contender.

Floyd’s harsh criticism has increased scrutiny of Chicago’s recent issues. The pitching problems reveal fundamental weaknesses in the team, worsened by a key bullpen injury since early September.

Cubs bullpen struggles without Palencia — Rehab hopes for relief

Since Daniel Palencia injured his right shoulder on September 7 and couldn’t get an out in the ninth inning, the Cubs have definitely missed him. He was put on the 15-day IL, which left a hole in the closer role just as the squad was about to play some highly important games.

The Cubs’ bullpen has been unstable since Palencia left. Pitchers like Andrew Kittredge, Brad Keller, Porter Hodge, and others tried filling his void, but they couldn’t. Manager Craig Counsell hasn’t had as many reliable late-inning choices to rely on, which has shown vulnerabilities when starters struggled or when late homers needed to be stopped. This goes back to the recent losses when the bullpen gave up home runs and took too long to pull struggling pitchers, which disrupted their momentum.

Palencia has started a rehab assignment with Triple-A Iowa. He pitched for a short time, striking out two batters, giving up two hits, and one run in two-thirds of an inning.  Earlier this week, he also started working on the mound again. If his shoulder heals well, he might be able to come back before the end of the regular season. This would bring back a proven closer whose performance earlier in the year (3.00 ERA, 1.18 WHIP) gave the team consistency.

Bringing Palencia back can make it easier for Craig Counsell to handle the bullpen. And with that, the Cubs might tighten up their late-game play, give their manager more options, and better protect small leads.