Cubs not willing to settle for wild-card spot, aiming for NL Central title
CHICAGO — What one sees most prominently at Wrigley Field is, of course, the brick wall-encasing green ivy and the expanse of green grass, recently refurbished after country and rock concerts tore up the turf last week.
What one hears, however, is clapping. There’s a whole lot of clapping nowadays and not just in celebration of the hits and outs that produced a fifth straight Cubs win — and second over the rival Cardinals — but rhythmic clapping to the tunes of walk-up songs, such as Starlin Castro’s Dominican merengue and the French electro mix that greets Anthony Rizzo.
The clapping lingers after the song clip subsides. Everyone participates: the fans in their seats, even the Cubs players standing on the dugout’s top step and the relievers sitting on bullpen folding chairs.
During one fifth-inning Castro at bat, the organist interceded with a rendition of “If You’re Happy and You Know It,” which drew the assent of Cubs fans with more claps of their hands — in late September, no less. And there was a deafening ovation in Saturday’s ninth inning when shortstop Addison Russell made a diving stop to halt a Cardinals comeback to cue the raising of the ‘W’ flag and the singing of “Go Cubs Go.”
There is joy in Wrigleyville—mighty Kris Bryant homered again.
“That was the best [atmosphere] I’ve ever seen in baseball, personally,” Bryant said.
Three days from the fall equinox, the Cubs have a win total north of the standings’ equinox for the first time since 2009 after they defeated the Cardinals 5-4 on Saturday, a day after an 8-3 decision, to match the Pirates with 87 wins. The Cubs and Pirates have the second-most victories in baseball — and the second-most victories in their division, five behind the Cardinals, whose magic number is one to clinch a fifth straight postseason berth for the first time in the organization’s storied history.
“I don’t want anybody thinking, ‘Oh, let’s just make the playoffs. Let’s just be a wild card.’” Maddon said. “I don’t want that thought at all. That’s the thought that gets you in trouble. It keeps you from the top. We need to keep striving for the top rung of the ladder.”
St. Louis has a recently downward sloping trendline, with a 7-10 September record, while the Cubs are the long-term growth stock — in the fourth season since the Theo Epstein/Jed Hoyer IPO — that suddenly skyrocketed. Chicago is 40-21 since the All-Star break, good for the National League’s best mark.
Bryant doubled home a run in the first inning and then plated himself as the latter actor in back-to-back fifth-inning home runs, each estimated to travel an identical 411-feet. Jorge Soler lasered a liner halfway up the reconstructed bleachers while Bryant slugged his with a more traditional arc, nearly circumventing the bleachers altogether if not for a fan in the last row reaching over the chain-link to rob Waveland Avenue of the baseball.
Bryant’s homer was his 25th, tying him with the Dodgers’ Joc Pederson for most by rookies this season and breaking the franchise record held by Hall of Famer Billy Williams. With his blast and Soler’s, Cubs rookies now have 63 this season, which is tied for fifth-most homers by a rookie class in NL history.
Rizzo and the rookies have powered most of the Cubs’ wins, but the veteran 25-year-old Castro — it’s the first all 25-and-under infield since 1942 — had a large hand in the start of this series. On Friday, he became only the third Cubs second baseman to hit two homers and drive in six runs, joining Hall of Famers Rogers Hornsby and Ryne Sandberg, who each did it twice, before Castro singled twice with an RBI and stolen base on Saturday.
Following Tuesday’s doubleheader in Pittsburgh, the Cubs relied on ol’ Johnny Wholestaff to take the vacant rotation spot. Covering the first six innings were Travis Wood and Trevor Cahill, a pair of former All-Stars whose recent struggles relegated them to long relief roles, but who alternate throwing arms granting the Cubs an early-game opportunity to combat a starting lineup set for a lefty with a righty reliever. Six more Cubs pitchers followed them to the mound before the Cardinals made their 27th out.
“The season reveals that for you,” Maddon said. “It’s all theory until it becomes reality.”
Chicago’s relievers entered the day ranked fourth in the majors with a 3.44 FIP) Fielding-Independent Pitching), an ERA-style statistic that normalizes defense performance. In more basic terms, the bullpen had an ERA of nearly 4.00 in April and May and a 3.35 since.
The bullpen, once a weakness, has become a strength. The Cubs lost three games to the Cardinals in the season’s first half in which they held a lead in the seventh inning or later, which Maddon called “out-experiencing us.”
“We didn’t hold onto it earlier this year,” Maddon said. “Right now we’re holding on.”
The relievers weren’t the only late-game contributors. Russell’s game-saving play came after he entered as a defensive replacement, and Tommy La Stella chimed with a run-scoring single, as he improved to 4-for-8 as a pinch hitter.
“I don’t know how they do it, to be honest,” Rizzo said.
Saturday began with a brisk morning and 63-degree noontime first pitch that signaled the imminence of autumn as much as the college football North Siders typically spent their Saturdays watching, when meaningful baseball wasn’t competing for their attention.
All three games this weekend are sold out with attendances just north of 40,000; a late September series with the Cardinals last season — when a Cubs winning streak only meant avoiding 90 losses — drew around 30,000 paid tickets.
The Cubs, after all, are on pace for 95 wins and closed within five games of the Cardinals, the closest they’ve been since June 1.
“We don’t just want to settle for the wild card,” Bryant said. “We want it all.”
Chicago last earned postseason berths in 2003, ’07 and ’08, all three by winning the NL Central. Pitching for all three of those clubs was Kerry Wood, the afternoon’s guest seventh-inning stretch singer, who was received with — what else? — raucous applause.
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