Boy oh boy was that an awful loss to the Marlins, huh? Ben Brown gave up two home runs before he got an out, settled in and then got blown up again and couldn't get out of the fifth. The offense, which has carried the Cubs most of the season, came back against a poor Marlins' bullpen, but then Daniel Palencia made a horrible mistake on a 0-2 pitch with two outs in the ninth that led to Miami's 8-7 walk-off win.
Palencia is obviously getting most, if not all of the blame. He walked the next batter on four pitches, which is already bad, but even worse when you consider it was the No. 9 hitter Javier Sanoja, who has one career home run in 144 plate appearances. Back to the start of the rally, though, because Derek Hill, who had a .558 OPS in his first 17 games of the season, hit a ground-rule double to right field.
Right off the bat it looked like very catchable ball, but it ended up out of the reach of Kyle Tucker, bounced off the warning track and over the wall for a double.
I love Tucker, want him to end his career with the Cubs, but he looked kinda bad on that play.
Maybe it's a 50/50 ball, but if that was Seiya Suzuki I know there would be a lot more fans out with their pitch forks, looking to blame the right fielder for not making the catch. Tucker is a gold glove winner, earning the award in 2022 with the Astros in right field, but he's been a below average in the outfield so far with the Cubs in 2025.
Kyle Tucker Defensive Runs Saved/Out Above Average
2018: 159.1 innings, -1 DRS, 0 OAA
2019: 124 innings, 4 DRS, 1 OAA
2020: 402.1 innings, 5 DRS, 3 OAA
2021: 1,157 innings, 10 DRS, 0 OAA
2022: 1,276.1 innings, 14 DRS, 9 OAA
2023: 1,323.1 innings, 1 DRS, -5 OAA
2024: 592.2 innings, 7 DRS, 1 OAA
2025: 409.2 innings, -2 DRS, -2 OAA
Tucker is currently in the 28th percentile in outfield range according to his Baseball Savant page.
All that being said, Palencia needed to make a better pitch to Hill. He flat out failed to execute his 0-2 delivery and left a slider hanging out over the plate. Then, there was the four-pitch walk to the No. 9 hitter, which led to Jesús Sánchez hitting a walk-off triple down the right field line.
A real shame. A strike away from a fourth straight win turned into a shitty loss. Palencia had been great up until last night as well, entering the game with 10 straight scoreless appearances.
Well, hopefully the Cubs leave that loss in the rear-view mirror. They're in the midst of a 21-game span playing against teams below or barely above .500. So far the Cubs are 5-2 in that stretch.
