There will be Cubs baseball next week!
We still don’t know where, or even who the opponent will be. The Cubs defeated the Marlins 2-1 on a gorgeous late September afternoon at Wrigley Field and in so doing, clinched a National League wild-card berth. That’s two postseasons in a row for the Cubs, the first time they’ve done that since four straight from 2015-18.
After Matthew Boyd had a scoreless top of the first, Pete Crow-Armstrong led off the bottom of the inning with a walk.
Pretty much every one
of the 35,410 paid attendance, plus gameday staff, plus all the players and coaches and team management in attendance, knew PCA was going to take off and try for his 40th stolen base of 2026.
And he did it, taking off on the first pitch! [VIDEO]
Don’t ever forget where you were when you saw this, or found out about it, it’s baseball history and the cap to an amazing soon-to-be MVP season for the Cubs center fielder. He’s the seventh MLB player to accomplish a 40-homer, 40-steal season. The others:
Shohei Ohtani (54 homers and 59 steals in 2024)
Ronald Acuña Jr. (41 homers and 73 steals in 2023)
Alfonso Soriano (46 homers and 41 steals in 2006)
Alex Rodriguez (42 homers and 46 steals in 1998)
Barry Bonds (42 homers and 40 steals in 1996)
Jose Canseco (42 homers and 40 steals in 1988)
Pretty good company, I’d say. Congratulations to PCA, and keep it going into the postseason. Here’s a cool field view of the 40th steal [VIDEO].
Unfortunately, PCA was stranded. He got to third on a fly to center by Michael Busch, but Michael Conforto hit a comebacker to end the inning.
The Marlins took a 1-0 lead off Matthew Boyd in the third. Brian Navarretto led off with a double and two outs later, Jacob Marsee singled him in.
The Cubs once again had lots of traffic on the bases but could not score. A leadoff walk to Ian Happ in the second led to a double play ball hit by Nico Hoerner. Then Pedro Ramirez singled and stole second, but Carson Kelly grounded out to end the inning. In the third with one out, PCA and Seiya Suzuki singled and one out later Conforto walked to load the bases, but Happ grounded out. And in the fourth, Ramirez walked with one out and stole second again, but Kelly grounded out and Dansby Swanson struck out to end the inning.
If you’re counting — and maybe you weren’t but I was — that made the Cubs 0-for-8 with RISP in the first four innings and, up to that time, 2-for-34 in the series with RISP.
That’s… not good.
Boyd set the Marlins down in the fifth and then the Cubs tied the game. With one out in the bottom of the fifth, Suzuki smacked his 26th homer of the year [VIDEO].
Boyd threw a scoreless sixth with just a leadoff walk. Then the Cubs took the lead in the bottom of the inning. Ian Happ led off with a triple to right-center [VIDEO].
More on Happ’s triple from BCB’s JohnW53:
Ian Happ’s sixth-inning triple was his third of the year, tying him with Matt Shaw and Dansby Swanson for second most among Cubs. Pete Crow-Armstrong has eight.
It was Happ’s 19th triple in 1,292 games and 5,074 plate appearances during his 10 seasons as a Cub.
It was just his third leading off an inning, all at home and with the score tied. The first was July 4, 2017, vs. the Rays, in the second inning with no score; the second, June 7 of this year, vs. the Giants, in the fourth, with the score 1-1.
The Cubs lost both earlier games, 6-5 to the Rays and 2-1 to the Giants.
Nico followed with an RBI single to make it 2-1 [VIDEO].
Boyd finished the seventh uneventfully, and he wound up retiring 11 of the last 12 hitters he faced. As I wrote in the game preview, Boyd had a 5.53 ERA in 10 Wrigley starts before this one — this was by far his best start at home this year, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Boyd got a loud ovation when walking out to the bullpen for warmups this afternoon and he tipped his cap several times.
More on Boyd’s day from John:
This was Matthew Boyd’s ninth quality start of a total 22. Only Shota Imanaga has more among Cubs, 14 of 31.
Colin Rea has six such starts; David Peterson, five; and seven others from four to one.The team total is 54, about one of every three.
And more on Boyd’s outing [VIDEO].
Then it was up to the Cubs bullpen and, well, you know.
Daniel Palencia entered to throw the eighth. He issued a leadoff walk but retired the next three Marlins in order. The Cubs also went down in order in the eighth and so Ryan Zeferjahn was given the save opportunity. This probably did not fill you with confidence, but Zeferjahn was nails in this one. He got Agustin Ramirez to pop up foul on the second pitch he saw, then pinch-hitter Kyle Stowers grounded to short, also on Zeferjahn’s second pitch.
It took five pitches for Zeferjahn to retire Griffin Conine on a comebacker to end the game and clinch that postseason spot [VIDEO].
As noted in the clip by JD, this series didn’t go the way the Cubs wanted, but they got just enough hitting and solid bullpen work to win this game and get into the postseason. We will be watching the Phillies vs. Brewers (5:05 CT) and Padres vs. Dodgers (9:10 CT) tonight to see where the Cubs position will be entering the final three games of the year.
Before I get to tomorrow’s action, the final home game of the year always features the annual bleacher potluck lunch (Bluesky link):
This is why I love the bleachers so much — the friends I’ve made there, the camaraderie, the atmosphere, all the people. It’s been my home for decades. There’s no place in professional sports anything like it.
The Cubs will play a doubleheader against the Red Sox in Boston Friday, trying to get ahead of a nor’easter forecast to hit the New England area by Saturday. As of the time of this recap both teams list “TBD” as starters for the two games tomorrow, though we do know this (Bluesky link):
The games will be at 12:05 p.m. and 5:05 p.m. CT and televised by Marquee Sports Network.
As for BCB procedure Friday — a game preview will post for the day game at 10:30 a.m. CT. After that game I’ll post a recap that will include starting pitcher and other info for the night game. Then a night game recap will post Saturday morning.
On to October!
