Cubs get booed to open the year

As Moises Ballesteros grounded out to end Sunday’s game, the Friendly Confines were anything but as the Chicago faithful booed their team after a 6-3 loss to the Washington Nationals. 

The boos capped off what should have been a coronating opening weekend for the Cubbies. PCA and Nico Hoerner both signed long term contract extensions, and with new Cub Alex Bregman, the Northside core is locked up for the next few years. 

And then there are the expectations. As Pat Hughes said during the Cubbies singular win on Saturday “This team is gonna win a lot of baseball games.”

But instead, the Cubs dropped their opening weekend series to the Nationals, one of baseball’s worst teams in 2025. 

As I walked out of the stadium, I was still hopeful that the Cubs can get to where they need to be to win, but perhaps the weekend served as a harsh reminder that a path to a potential World Series will be anything but smooth and easy. 

The recap from Wrigley

The possibilities of this team are sky high – with a rock solid defense and (at least on paper) top tier pitching and batting, a playoff berth for Counsell’s crew seems destined, if not guaranteed. 

But remember, these are the Cubs. And as they say, the Cubs are gonna Cub. The fans at Wrigley know it, because from the first pitch we were all quite nervous. 

It was Imanaga’s first start of the season, and last year did not go well. The stats, of course, can give you part of the picture, but it is another thing entirely to watch a guy who is supposed to be pretty good (if not really good) give up homer after homer, and it became the story of Shota’s 2025 season. 

So the crowd waited impatiently as Imanaga started his outing with two balls, but gave a nice cheer when he threw his first strike. 

That batter, he struck out. 

But after the second out, Imanaga seemed to be back to his 2025 self. Just like that, he gave up two hits, and then the crowd watched in abject silence as he gave up a three run home run (and then we all cheered when the ball was thrown back onto the field).

After that, the chatter began – Imanaga is washed. He’s done, he can’t stop giving up homers. 

But Shota cleaned up his act after that. He ended the day striking out seven batters (pretty good!). At one point, he worked himself out of a jam when he gave up a lead off triple – a solid moment. But at the end of it all, Shota gave up four earned runs in five innings of work. 

In 2026, four runs from your starter isn’t… terrible. It’s not ideal, but you would hope that your offense can produce at least four runs a game, if not more. Especially a team like the Cubs, which has a lot of great hitters throughout the order. 

And despite a rough start from their pitcher, the Cubs bounced back in the 4th. After three hitless innings, Bregman bashed is first Breggy-Bomb as a Cub into the bleachers, which made everyone go bananas. And then Ian Happ stepped up and bashed another one into the basket, and we all went bananas again.

The score was 3-2, and a Cubs comeback seemed certain. 

However, the Cubs would only record two more hits for the rest of the game, while the Nationals put up another three runs, courtesy of Cubs pitchers Phil Maton (who technically inherited the one run from Shota) and Hoby Milner. 

At the bottom of the 8th inning, the Cubs were down 6-2. And even after another solo homer from Alex Bregman, the chances of a comeback were slim to none. It was only out of sheer stubbornness and vain hope that many fans stuck around through the 9th, only to see the Cubs go down in order, 1 2 3. 

By the end of the game, we only had four moments to truly cheer four – three homers, and when Jim Belushi was announced as the conductor for the seventh inning stretch. 

On both opening day and on Sunday, I saw a team that looked overconfident go up against a team with a chip on their shoulder, a dangerous combination for the favorite. I also want to note that, while the Nationals were bad last year, they could be good this year. With a new manager, the Nats came into Chicago with a clear plan and determination to spoil the Cubs season opening coronation, and they did so. Honestly, good for them. 

The recap from Reddit

When one is at Wrigley, you are no longer a person. You are part of a great collective, a multi cellular organism, of baseball lovers who are there to get drunk and have a good time. You forget about the outside world, and even after a loss, you can shake your head and get a drink at one of the many bars in Wrigleyville. 

Wrigley Field is a liminal space. Yes, what happens there matters in terms of the results of the game, but as the great philosopher and comedian Bo Burnham once said – 

…the outside world, the non-digital world, is merely a theatrical space in which one stages and records content for the much more real, much more vital digital space. 

In fact, one could argue that the online discourse about a baseball game, whether it be on Reddit, X/Twitter, etc. is even more real than the experience one has at the ballpark, considering it’s impact on the players and the game. 

So, if you want a good look into what is going on in the digital world for many Cubs fans, you can go to the subreddit r/chicubs, the (more or less) official subreddit for the Chicago Cubs. 

Lets look at some of the highlights from the live game day thread:

“Of course, their bum ol pitcher will pitch the game of their live against us”

“HAPPER LETS FUCKING GO” 

“The other thing is, he [Imanaga] has peaked. He is a 5”9 midget with below average stuff. He will never get better.”

“Ha ha, eat shit, Nationals!”

“So were going to have a trash bullpen…great. nice pickup jed on matoon lol”

“They are actually going to lose a series to the Nationals to start the season. This franchise is a total joke and that will seemingly never change.”

“Its official, I am writing off the season after the first weekend”

“Many gdt commenters should consider reallocating cubs focused funds to getting therapy”

So yeah, the commentators on r/chicubs are not a particularly regulated bunch. However, that’s just how it is for every Cubs gdt. Even if the team is winning, there will be someone in the comments catastrophizing the situation. And in spite of the emotional volatility, it can be a great representation of the pure id-powered thoughts that are running through many a-Cubs fan’s brain. 

Thankfully, the post-game threads that are usually much more level headed, and I think this top comment said it best:

They started 1-3 last year and lost 4 of their first 6. Overreacting to losing the opening series is dramatic. Baseball is a rollercoaster of ups and downs. Flush this series and go get ‘em tomorrow. 

So while the opening series can be emblematic of a season, in baseball it very often is not. 

In 2025, the tale for the Cubs was one of two teams. The first half team had a so-so pitching crew and a super fun to watch offense that hit a lot of home runs. Then there was the second half team, who could barely put up 3-5 runs a game, but were backed by a stellar pitching staff. In an ideal world, we’d take the hitting from the first half and the pitching from the second half and combine them into a great Cubs team. Unfortunately, things rarely work out that well. 

Regardless, the path the Cubs take to the playoffs this year will hopefully be less rocky, but we can all be certain that the season will be full of its own emotional ups and downs. 

It’s a long season, and this is just the beginning. 

As I waited for the bus after the game, a couple of drunk Cubs fans harassed passing taxis that offer grossly overpriced rides after games. A touching reminder that, even after a tough loss, things return to normal, and life keeps moving on.