The Chicago Cubs finally can take the postseason bunting out of the mothballs.
Playoff baseball will return to Wrigley Field next week for the first time in five years, and for the first time with fans inside the ballpark since 2018.
The Cubs clinched home field for their National League wild-card series with a 7-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday. All games in their best-of-three series against the San Diego Padres will be at Wrigley beginning Tuesday.
Michael Busch drove in four runs and went 4-for-4 with a pair of home runs, a double and a triple, Jameson Taillon threw six strong innings and the Cubs survived a late scare before a raucous crowd of 38,035 on a gorgeous 78-degree afternoon.
Manager Craig Counsell said Busch “drove the bus,” which managed to roll over the Cardinals and bring playoff baseball back to Wrigley.
“From a fan-base perspective, being able to do it against your rival makes it a little sweeter,” Busch said. “But anytime you can do it against anybody is pretty cool.”
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The game’s loudest moment, however, came in the eighth when Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol ordered an intentional walk to Busch from reliever Jorge Alcala with two outs, a runner on third and a four-run deficit, depriving the Cubs first baseman of a chance to hit for the cycle.
The boos over the move could be heard all the way to Evanston.
“I’m not here for anybody’s amusement,” Marmol said. “I’m trying to win a game. The next guy grounded out to the pitcher, so I think it worked.”
Counsell and Busch both said it was a valid baseball decision, though Busch said he “selfishly” wanted the chance to hit. He added that Cubs fans standing and cheering for him as he entered the box was “pretty cool” and helped make up for the disappointment of missing out on his shot at the cycle.
Photos: Chicago Cubs beat St. Louis Cardinals 7-3 at Wrigley Field
“I hate that Bushy didn’t have a chance at some history for him,” Dansby Swanson said. “But I guess I’d be a little bit sick of watching him hit all those homers and all that kind of stuff too. I get both sides of it.”
After the Cubs disclosed the disappointing news before the game that Cade Horton’s recent injury was a right rib fracture that would prevent him from pitching for what President Jed Hoyer called “the foreseeable future,” Taillon looked more than ready to fill his spot in the wild-card series — and beyond if the Cubs advance.
Taillon allowed one run on three hits over six innings, finishing his injury-marred season at 11-7 with a 3.68 ERA. His only mistake was serving up a fourth-inning solo home run to Nolan Arenado. Taillon has allowed two or fewer runs in his last seven starts and is 4-1 with a 1.57 ERA in six second-half starts.
Counsell said moving Taillon up from Sunday was intended as a backup plan in case Horton could not pitch through the rib fracture, and Taillon said he expects to be ready for a possible Game 3 start if necessary.
Busch’s first home run leading off the bottom of the first gave the Cubs an early lead, and a two-run shot in the fifth — his 34th of the season — snapped a 1-1 tie. Suzuki cranked a solo home run in the sixth, his fourth in the last three games after going homerless in his previous 38 games.
Better late than never?
“Hitting is one of those things where a breakthrough can happen with any small thing in my mind,” Suzuki said through an interpreter of his recent surge. “If it had happened earlier, great. It’s a little late, but if I can keep this up going into the playoffs, I think it will help the team.”
After the Cardinals pulled within a run on Jordan Walker’s two-run home run off Caleb Thielbar in the seventh, the Cubs added an insurance run on Busch’s RBI triple in the bottom of the inning. Pete Crow-Armstrong’s two-run home run in the eighth off the right-field video board let everyone relax for the ninth.
This wild Cubs season has had quite a few highs and lows, from opening day in Tokyo to Saturday’s win that clinched the home wild-card series. But in the end they’re where they wanted to be — playing October baseball at Wrigley Field.
After the Cubs went 83-79 in Counsell’s first year, he said the goal should be to construct a 90-win team. The Cubs did just that, and are now at 91 wins with one game remaining Sunday.
“Look, if you get to that number there’s a really good chance you’re talking about the playoffs, and that’s the first goal everyone wants to accomplish is just to be involved in October,” Counsell said. “And that number is going to get you there 19 out of 20 years. And it has this year. Our number last year might have gotten us there this year.”
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The Cubs are 49-31 at Wrigley and have won with the wind blowing in, out and sideways. The big crowds are always a factor, but the advantage the Cubs have playing at home is multifold.
“We’ve played really well at home this year,” Taillon said. “I think the fans are a big part of that. I think the day games are a big part of that. Learning the conditions and embracing the wind and the sun and all of that, it’s definitely one of the best home-field advantages in sports.
“We’ve seen it all this year, we’ve been challenged to win in a lot of different ways. I think that really helps us. San Diego is really good at home too. It’s always important to play in front of your fans, but this was a battle of both of us wanting to play at home because we’re really good at home.”
Crow-Armstrong watched the Cubs playoffs on TV with his dad but said “it didn’t do it justice on TV, what this place is like.”
Even Marmol would agree to that after being booed to the heavens for denying Busch his shot at a cycle.
“There’s a real home-field advantage the way (fans) go about it and you feel the animosity,” Marmol said. “I absolutely love their reaction and I respect it. I really do. I enjoyed it. I wish more of them were like that.”
Counsell said clinching home field at home was “really important and really special” for the players and coaches, but more so for Cubs fans.
“Of course we as a team wanted to play here,” he said. “It’s Wrigley, it’s home, no travel, but getting it done today in this fashion is the way we wanted it to happen.”
Javier Assad will start Sunday’s regular-season finale, but with nothing on the line it should be a day for most of the regulars to get some rest.
But you can probably expect Cubs fans to wear Marmol out once again for the “Busch move,” if only to get their throats ready for October at Wrigley Field.
It’s been a minute.
But the feeling never fades.