The Cubs put everything they had on the field at a raucous Wrigley Field Thursday afternoon/early evening, from pitching to hitting to defense, and then had to hang on with pitchers they probably did not want to use to lock this win down in the ninth inning.
But win it they did, 3-1 over the Padres, taking their Wild Card Series and setting up a matchup with the NL Central champion Brewers in a NL Division Series beginning Saturday in Milwaukee. That’ll be some great fun, I think, but let’s look back
at this one.
No one scored in the first inning, and Jameson Taillon had some help from his defense. Pete Crow-Armstrong made this slick sliding catch to end the inning [VIDEO].
Taillon also set the Padres down scoreless in the second. Then the Cubs offense got to work. Kyle Tucker, who had been hitless in the series, led off the bottom of the second with a single and went to third on a double by Seiya Suzuki. Carson Kelly was hit by a pitch to load the bases with nobody out.
Well. Teams that want to win games like this really, really need to score runs in a situation like that and the Cubs did.
PCA’s single scored Tucker [VIDEO].
The bases remained loaded for Dansby Swanson. That was it for Yu Darvish, who threw only 21 pitches. Jeremiah Estrada entered the game and walked Swanson to make it 2-0 [VIDEO].
Matt Shaw struck out, but there was hope for more runs when Michael Busch came to the plate, but he hit into an inning-ending double play.
Taillon continued to mow down Padres, helped by his defense. Swanson’s slick play to start the fourth was one of those plays [VIDEO].
The Cubs couldn’t do anything else off Estrada in the third, or Michael King in the fourth. Taillon was lifted after four innings. I thought he could have gone one more inning, but I understand why Craig Counsell made that decision — he wanted Caleb Thielbar to face three left-handed hitters in the fifth. Unfortunately, one of them got a hit, so Daniel Palencia was summoned to finish the inning. Which he did, but not until allowing a two-out double that put runners on second and third.
The Cubs again had a chance to score in the bottom of the fifth after Busch blooped a single to left, but Nico hit into a double play. In 599 at-bats in the regular season, Hoerner hit into four double plays.
Anyway, Palencia began the sixth and got the first out on another great play by Swanson [VIDEO].
Drew Pomeranz got three outs in the seventh after a leadoff single and stolen base by Xander Bogaerts. But it wasn’t quite that easy — yet another fantastic defensive play, this one a snag of a line drive by Hoerner [VIDEO].
That one might have saved the game. If Nico doesn’t make that catch, a run scores and there’s still a runner on first and only one out. Instead, there were two out and Pomeranz got a fly to center to end the inning.
Then the Cubs scored an important insurance run on Busch’s leadoff homer in the bottom of the seventh [VIDEO].
It appears ESPN turned the crowd sound down again on that one, so friends, let me tell you it was LOUD after that homer. Not “Miguel Montero in the NLCS” loud, but plenty loud. Nico followed with a double and it looked like the Cubs might add a run after Ian Happ sacrificed him to third.
But Nico was thrown out at the plate on a contact play, confirmed on review.
Brad Keller allowed a leadoff single in the eighth, then retired the next three Padres, and the Cubs did not score in the bottom of the inning.
So who’s going to close this one with the pen running on fumes?
I was surprised to see Keller come out for the ninth, and probably, so were you. Keller served up a leadoff homer to Jackson Merrill, then struck out Bogaerts.
And then, friends, Keller decided to make this a nail-biter. He had thrown 13 pitches on Tuesday and was approaching 30 in this one when he hit both Ryan O’Hearn and Bryce Johnson with pitches. Sheesh. Now the tying run is on base. Counsell had Andrew Kittredge AND Matthew Boyd (!) warming up in the bullpen.
Kittredge was summoned. He got Jake Cronenworth to ground to third [VIDEO].
The play went to review and was ruled “call stands.” You can see Shaw double-clutching and it was a VERY close play.
Now the tying run is in scoring position. But Kittredge, who has such a calm mound presence, got Freddy Fermin to hit a lazy fly to PCA and the celebration began [VIDEO].
Don’t know if ESPN showed this, but after PCA celebrated with his teammates, he came back out to the outfield to share the joy with bleacher fans, a wonderful moment.
This was just the third time the Cubs had won a postseason series at Wrigley Field (or, anywhere in Chicago). The others: The Division Series win over the Cardinals in 2015, and the NLCS win over the Dodgers in 2016. More from BCB’s JohnW53:
This was the first time in their post-season history that the Cubs won a winner-take-all game at home. They had lost the previous three at home: by 9-3, to the Tigers, in Game 7 of the 1945 World Series; by 9-6 to the Marlins, in Game 7 of the 2003 Championship Series; and by 2-1, in 13 innings to Rockies in the 2020 Wild Card game. On the road, the Cubs are 4-1 in showdown games, so they now are 5-4 overall.
It was a tremendously exciting game, well played by the Cubs on the mound, in the field and at the plate. If they can do that against the Brewers, they’ve got a real chance at getting to the NLCS.
Here’s Swanson on the win [VIDEO].
Here are some postgame remarks by Counsell in the clubhouse after the win [VIDEO].
Now I’d like to add a little personal note. Forty-one years ago today, the Cubs beat the Padres 13-0 in Game 1 of the NLCS. And after they won Game 2, we all thought they were going to the World Series. You know what happened there, and there’s still some pain left over from that week. This time? No weird schedule without a travel day, no Gatorade on a first baseman’s mitt, just good baseball and a win over the Padres. Does that erase what happened in 1984? Of course not. But beating the Padres in a postseason series feels mighty good to this fan who experienced the 1984 NLCS in person. Mighty, mighty good.
And I’ll just add this other historical coincidence. Andrew Kittredge’s take-the-mound music is Joan Jett’s version of “Crimson & Clover.” The original version of that song, by Tommy James and the Shondells, came out in… 1969.
Maybe special things are coming to us this fall.
The Division Series against the Brewers opens Saturday in Milwaukee. At this writing we don’t know the game time. If the Yankees win their Wild Card Series the game will be at 1:08 p.m. CT on TBS. If the Red Sox beat the Yankees, the Cubs and Brewers will play at 8:08 p.m. CT on TBS. Freddy Peralta is scheduled to start for the Brewers, and as of now the Cubs don’t have a starter listed. It could very well be Javier Assad, who wasn’t on the Wild Card Series roster but who could be added. As always, we await developments.
Now go celebrate!
