It was all for the taking for the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday night, only to be lost in one of the more bizarre ways a team has blown a lead. The Cubs jumped out to a 6-0 lead over the MLB-best Atlanta Braves on Tuesday, carrying it into the bottom of the sixth inning. The Braves scored three runs that inning and two more in the seventh to cut the deficit to one.

Then came the bottom of the eighth. Two Braves reached base via walk before Sean Murphy came up to the plate with two outs. He lofted a fly ball to right-center field that looked to be tracked down by Cubs right fielder Seiya Suzuki. Until it wasn’t.

Suzuki flat-out missed the ball, letting it drop behind him and allowing two runs to score, giving the Braves their first lead of the night. After seven unanswered runs and a brutal costly error, Atlanta closed out the game for a 7-6 win and put a damper on Chicago's playoff hopes.

“I was seeing it pretty well until the very last second,” Suzuki said, via Jesse Rogers. “I honestly thought it went into my glove. So it was just that split second where I blurred my vision.”

Not only did the loss cut the Cubs' lead for the final National League wild card spot to a half-game, it officially eliminated Chicago from the NL Central race as the Milwaukee Brewers clinched with five games left to play.

Seiya Suzuki is a very talented fielder and won five Golden Glove Awards in Japan. His Bill Buckner-esque gaffe could come back to haunt the Cubs, but Chicago still controls its own destiny in the National League playoff race.