The Cubs had the kind of night that can turn on one swing, one pitch, one missed chance. Instead, Monday ended with Detroit walking out of Wrigley Field with an 8-6 win after a three-run 10th inning, and Chicago left to wonder about the chances it let slip away.
The game was already on edge by the time the Cubs finally dragged themselves back into it. Seiya Suzuki and Michael Busch had trimmed an early 4-0 hole with back-to-back homers in the third, but the real jolt came in the eighth.
Ian Happ, who came in just 3 for his last 18, ambushed a center-cut fastball from Ryan Finnegan and sent it 432 feet into the right-center bleachers. The ball left his bat at 104.8 mph, tied the game, and gave Happ his 18th homer of the season.
It also moved him to 11th on the Cubs’ all-time home run list.
From there, the setup looked familiar. The Cubs had a clean path to another walk-off, with the bottom of the ninth opening exactly the way they like it: Dansby Swanson ripped a leadoff double, Michael Conforto lifted a deep fly to center to move him to third, and the Tigers intentionally put Pete Crow-Armstrong on base. That left Suzuki, Busch and Alex Bregman to finish the job.
Instead, the inning unraveled. Suzuki got ahead 3-1 against Kenley Jansen, then chased two straight pitches, including one well off the plate.
Busch worked a six-pitch walk, pushing the pressure onto Bregman. He jumped to a 3-0 count and had the kind of moment the Cubs needed him to cash in.
But Jansen fought back, ran it full, and then got Bregman to nick a foul tip up and in on his hands - a pitch that would have been ball four.
The Cubs never recovered from that missed opening.
Jameson Taillon’s return to the mound also set the tone early. He was back at Wrigley Field for the first time since June 7, when a hamstring injury against the San Francisco Giants sent him to the injured list for six weeks.
The right-hander was already battling command problems before the injury, and the Tigers jumped him immediately. After two quick hits in the first, Taillon left a 93.3-mph fastball over the plate to Riley Greene, who blasted a three-run homer to right-center.
Dillon Dingler followed with a 3-2 sinker driven into left, and suddenly it was 4-0.
Taillon did settle down some after that opening frame, striking out six over 4.1 innings. He finished with four earned runs allowed on five hits and two walks.
But the early damage was enough to leave the Cubs chasing all night, and the 5.38 ERA Taillon carries over 72 innings this season reflects the struggle. Chicago’s rotation, as a whole, now sits with an MLB 11th-worst 4.42 ERA.
The loss dropped the Cubs to 56-44, while Detroit moved to 47-53.
The series continues Tuesday with lefty David Peterson set to start for the Cubs. Peterson is 4-7 with a 6.45 ERA, though he came off his last outing against the Baltimore Orioles with five strong innings of two-hit, one-run ball.
Framber Valdez, a southpaw, is scheduled for Detroit. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m.
CT.
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