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Michael Busch, Alex Bregman and manager Craig Counsell of the Chicago Cubs look on against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Chicago Cubs are one loss away from joining one of the most undesirable and smallest groups in modern baseball history after dropping nine straight games during a stunning late-May collapse.

If Chicago loses to the Pirates Tuesday in Pittsburgh, the Cubs will join the 2017 Los Angeles Dodgers as the only expansion-era teams to post multiple 10-game winning streaks and a losing streak of at least 10 games in the same season. And it’s only May.

The Dodgers hit their losing skid in September while leading the division by 14 1/2 games. The Cubs are threatening the dubious mark before the calendar turns to June.

At 29-25, Chicago has dropped 13 of its last 15 and sits 3 1/2 games back in the National League Central, third in a division where every team entered Memorial Day above .500.

Chicago Cubs’ Losing Streak: How the Slide Unfolded

The Cubs were 15 games over .500 on May 8. What followed was a collapse across the board. Bats went cold, the rotation began fracturing, and one of the NL’s more electric early-season hot streaks became a memory.

During the nine-game skid, Chicago ranked 30th in batting average (.183) and 27th in wRC+ (74), going 8-for-60 with runners in scoring position, as reported by Sports Illustrated‘s Zoe Grossman. Shortstop Dansby Swanson has been the most visible casualty, batting .186 with a .628 OPS while going hitless in three of his last four games.

“Offensively, we are equipped to be way more consistent than this and way better than this, and we need to show it,” manager Craig Counsell said after Monday’s 2-1 loss to the Pirates, as quoted by ESPN.

Monday’s loss was fairly typical. Ben Brown gave the Cubs six sharp innings with one run and seven strikeouts, giving him a 2.01 ERA on the season. Michael Busch homered in the fifth to tie it. Chicago lost anyway, as Pittsburgh’s bullpen retired the final 10 Cubs in order.

Cubs Rotation Injuries Drive Crisis Deeper

The offensive dysfunction would be easier to absorb if the team’s starting rotation were intact.

Top young arm Cade Horton is out for the season after Tommy John surgery. Justin Steele — an All-Star and top-five Cy Young finisher in 2023 — suffered a recovery setback that pushed his return past the All-Star break. Matthew Boyd, who made his first All-Star roster at 34 last season, is out after knee surgery. And Edward Cabrera, acquired from Miami in January with a 4.00 ERA across 54 innings, landed on the 15-day injured list Sunday with a finger blister, according to CBS Sports‘ Dayn Perry. Similar blisters typically cost pitchers around 24 days and often recur.

Four rotation arms with front-of-the-staff potential are out simultaneously, leaving Shota Imanaga, Jameson Taillon, Jordan Wicks, Brown, and Colin Rea to hold things together in a division offering very little margin for error.

The Cubs still have the season ahead of them. But Tuesday’s game in Pittsburgh — the opener of a seven-game road trip that ends in St. Louis — arrives at a genuinely critical juncture. Win, and the skid stays at nine. Lose, and Chicago steps into a club with only one other member since the first modern MLB expansion in 1961.