The Chicago Cubs never recovered from giving up two solo home runs in the first inning of their Game 1 Wild Card series against the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night, going on to lose 8-0. Chicago remains just two wins away from advancing and facing the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLDS, but one Cubs fan and Barstool Sports personality doesn’t believe that it’s in the cards, or that his Cubbies deserve to be here at all.
“The Cubs do not belong in the playoffs. Part of me is excited that like we technically have a chance to win the World Series,” Mark Titus said on Mostly Sports with Mark Titus and Brandon Walker on Wednesday.
“They were not a good baseball team,” he added. “They had Pete Crow-Armstrong, you know, the one of the certainly one of the best seasons in the history of the Chicago Cubs. Maybe if you want to get crazy, say one of the best seasons a baseball player’s ever had. If not for that, there were no bright spots, Brandon. This is a bad baseball team that was carried by individual brilliance and they don’t belong in the playoffs.”
The expanded wildcard does NOT feel like the playoffs @clubtrillion pic.twitter.com/yC8tLZYPay
— Mostly Sports With Mark Titus & Brandon Walker (@mostlysports) September 30, 2026
Titus continued to say that although he wanted to go to bed during the game, which didn’t start until 11:00 PM CST, he found himself staying up to see the performance.
“And last night I had to stay up late, well past my bedtime. Sure, I was tuckered out. I wanted to go to bed, but I had to stay up. I had to watch the boys muster one, one meaningful— like when the game was even kind of in question, they had one hit. And even then that was like well after the fact, I’d say. So like they basically got no hit last night. The Padres hit a home run on the first pitch.
“They just don’t belong in the playoffs. And I think, I think I would rather them not made the playoffs.”
Titus concluded by saying that although he wished showings like Tuesday night’s would produce meaningful change within the organization, he knows that it’ll just be more of the same next year.
“Everybody, be angry, figure out how to fix it. But instead, what’s going to happen is the Cubs are going to lose tonight. They’re going to look back on the season. They’re going to say, ‘Pete Crowe Armstrong was great. We made the playoffs. We were right there. Anything could have happened. It didn’t happen. Let’s try again next year.’
“And we’re just going to, we’re just going to run it back.”
The Cubs will be in a win-or-go-home scenario against the Padres on Wednesday night.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.