Tough Day at Wrigley Field 
As a Pittsburgh Pirates fan, it's hard to find the silver lining after today's game against the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs handed us a painful 12-0 loss in what can only be described as a dominant performance by the home team. First Inning Falters
The game didn't start too poorly for us. Isiah Kiner-Falefa popped out, but Bryan Reynolds reached first on a throwing error. Unfortunately, Nick Gonzales grounded into a double play to end our top half of the inning. The Cubs struck first when Seiya Suzuki's single, compounded by a fielding error by Bryan Reynolds, allowed Ian Happ to score. A double play helped limit the damage to one run, but the tone was set.Cubs Keep Piling It On
The Cubs didn’t let up. After another error-free second inning from our beloved Bucs led by a walk from Connor Joe and a walk from Jared Triolo, the Cubs came back with a vengeance. Crow-Armstrong and Happ’s singles and doubles put them up 4-0. They then continued their momentum with solo shots in the third inning by Dansby Swanson and Crow-Armstrong, making it a whopping 7-0.Pitching Changes But Results the Same
We saw three different pitchers— Germán, Beeks, and Nicolas—but none of them could stop the bleeding. The Cubs were relentless, with Cody Bellinger hitting a two-run homer in the sixth inning to make it 11-0. Our offense was stymied, unable to get anything going and constantly grounding out or striking out.Defensive Woes & Missed Opportunities
Errors played a significant role too. Besides the early mishap from Bryan Reynolds, Nick Gonzales and others couldn’t capitalize on multiple throwing errors by the Cubs' third baseman. The game wrapped up with a final run in the 8th from the Cubs when Miles Mastrobuoni singled to left, bringing the final tally to 12-0.Wrapping It Up 
Today was definitely a tough pill to swallow for Pirates fans. A fighting spirit in the upcoming games is what we need to turn things around. Keep your heads up, Pirate fans. We’ll get there! Let's go Bucs! 
Scoreboard for Pirates @ Cubs (September 4th, 2024)
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 17 | 3 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |