Cubs Match Dubious Historic Mark With Ninth Straight Loss
Chicago's 2-1 loss to Pittsburgh on May 25, 2026 extended the team's slide to nine games, placing the Cubs alongside the 2017 Dodgers in a statistical anomaly the expansion era has seen only twice.
The Chicago Cubs' slide reached a dispiriting nadir on May 25, 2026, falling 2-1 to the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park and matching the most extended losing streak in the franchise's recent memory. The defeat, Chicago's ninth consecutive, dropped the Cubs further from contention in a National League Central race that had seemed navigable just weeks prior. Christopher Morel supplied the sole Cubs run with a solo home run, but Pittsburgh's two-run sixth inning off Chicago's bullpen proved decisive. The Cubs managed just three hits in total. The loss carried statistical weight beyond the immediate scoreboard damage.
What makes the current tailspin historically notable is its context within the same season. According to ESPN's reporting, Chicago is now the only team in the expansion era, alongside the 2017 Los Angeles Dodgers, to record multiple winning streaks of at least ten games and a losing streak of nine or more in a single season. The 2017 Dodgers, of course, went on to reach the World Series that year. The Cubs have no such cushion. Their early-season surges—the 11-game winning streak in April, the follow-up 10-game streak in May—now read as false dawns against the structural reality of a roster that cannot sustain offensive production.
The 2-1 final score captures the essence of the problem. Chicago's offense has gone cold at precisely the moment the pitching staff has begun to steady itself. Jared Jones earned the win for Pittsburgh, limiting the Cubs to one run over five innings. The Pirates' decisive rally came when Bryan Reynolds delivered a two-run single in the sixth inning off a Cubs reliever who had entered with the game tied. The sequence—teammates warming up in the bullpen too late, a manager holding a pitcher in too long—reflects a pattern of in-game decision-making that has compounded across the losing streak.
The 2017 Dodgers comparison is instructive but ultimately misleading. That Los Angeles team featured a deep roster, a generational talent in Cody Bellinger, and a rotation that could absorb injuries. The Cubs, by contrast, have cycled through extended IL stints for key contributors while relying on unproven bats to carry the load. The front office's strategy of building around controllable, cost-effective pieces looked sound during the winning stretches. It looks insufficient now. The statistical achievement of joining the 2017 Dodgers in this particular ledger—multiple ten-game streaks and a nine-game slide in one season—turns out to be the wrong kind of record.
What the sources do not yet clarify is the degree to which this slide reflects a permanent roster inflection point versus a correctable sequence of poor sequencing and batted-ball luck. The Cubs have had two distinct hot stretches and two distinct cold stretches; the variance suggests something structural in the approach rather than a simple talent deficit. If the cold stretches begin to lengthen again, the front office faces an uncomfortable question: whether to treat the deadline as a selling opportunity or double down on a competitive window that may be closing faster than projected. The Cubs have not confirmed any strategic review is underway, and the organization declined to comment beyond game remarks. The silence is itself informative. A team with clear momentum does not lose nine straight and have nothing to say about it.
The immediate path forward offers no easy resolution. Chicago faces Pittsburgh again on May 26 before beginning a road trip that will test whatever structural adjustments the coaching staff attempts. The 2017 Dodgers, for all the statistical parallels, corrected their midseason swoon en route to 104 regular-season wins. The Cubs' margin for error has already been consumed. The winning streaks bought goodwill; the losing streak is now spending it at an accelerating rate.
Desk note: The wire services led with the historical parallel as the angle; this piece foregrounds the roster construction question that the parallel raises but does not resolve. CBS Sports provided the game-level scoring details that ESPN's broader framing left implicit.