Chicago Cubs Score and Recap (6/17/24): Giants 7, Cubs 6 – Neris Blows Another Save

This isn’t going to be a typical recap, because honestly, I don’t think anybody wants to read about this game. Monday night was yet another time the Cubs made a series of sloppy mistakes to give away a contest they had no business losing.

It is almost uncanny the number of times the obvious flaws in Jed Hoyer’s roster expose themselves at the worst possible moments to sabotage potential victories. In this case, catcher’s interference by Miguel Amaya began a rally that was accelerated by another disaster-piece performance from ”closer” Héctor Neris, who eventually surrendered the game-winning dinger.

Of course, this was one of the rare times when the offense actually showed some competence with six runs and a pair of homers. Another familiar theme is the inability for all aspects of the team to actually function well in the same game. Wild inconsistency that has led to close loss after close loss for the last month and a half.

The worst part of all of it is the feeling that nothing is going to change for the rest of the season. A catching situation that has become untenable continues to go unaddressed. Having a -1.6 WAR in June from one of your positions is not sustainable when every single game is tight.

Perhaps even more exasperating is the insistence on continuing to use Neris at the end of games. Every outing was an ordeal, even when unsustainable luck kept Heart-Attack Héctor from complete disaster. When that luck inevitably disappeared about two weeks ago and leads began to disappear it made perfect sense to move on and try someone different.

Instead, the Cubs braintrust has inexplicably plowed ahead with the former Astro in the final frame and the results have been even more painful defeats. Making some of these marginal moves probably won’t have a huge impact, but at least it will be something proactive. Right now it is just doing the same thing again and again and hoping it will be different this time but it never is.

Any kind of major personnel moves feel like a million miles away when even minor tweaks seem like they are too drastic for this group. I would like to thank you for giving me this opportunity to vent, we will return to the normal recaps on Tuesday, even if they end up being more of the same. (Box score)