The baseball gods blessed the Chicago Cubs with perfect fall weather Wednesday for Game 3 of the National League Division Series at Wrigley Field.
DJ John Summit energized the pregame crowd with a pop-up concert at Gallagher Way, turning the area that once housed Yum-Yum Donuts into Wrigleypalooza. Carlos Zambrano, the former Cubs pitcher and legendary destroyer of Gatorade coolers, revved up fans inside the park with the ceremonial first pitch before John Vincent’s stirring national anthem had everyone holding their breath in fear he would spontaneously combust after “land of the freeeeeeeeeee.”
Everything was in place for the Cubs as they tried to stay alive in the NLDS against the Milwaukee Brewers, who ran roughshod over them in Games 1 and 2 at American Family Field, threatening to sweep their big-city rivals out of the postseason with ease.
So would the Cubs keep the party going at least one more day or end their season with a whimper?
In a wild game that had fans on their feet from beginning to end, the Cubs won 4-3 to stave off elimination.
Brad Keller stranded the bases loaded to end the eighth and pitched a perfect ninth, including getting Christian Yelich to ground to Nico Hoerner to start the traditional sing-along at Wrigley.
“It gives you chills every time you think about it, every time you’re out there,” Keller said. “They’re here early and were loud. They understand what is at stake.”
Game 4 is Thursday at Wrigley, which figures to be on overdrive once again.
More Top Picks Best Beer Faucets For Kegerators
Matthew Boyd, who was knocked out in the first inning of Game 1, said he’s ready to pitch in whatever capacity. He said he thought about getting another chance five minutes after he left the drubbing in Milwaukee.
“I know what I’m going to do when the ball is in my hand, and when that time comes (Thursday) I’ll be ready,” said Boyd, who was named Game 4 starter Thursday morning.
Cubs fans had gone through the wringer during the regular season, trying to figure out which team would show up on any given day, and the postseason had provided more of the same going into Game 3, alternating between moments of ecstasy and misery.
But being home at Wrigley, which is more than just a great place for posting Instagram selfies, gave fans hope that things could turn around. With a 61-degree temperature, it finally felt like October.
“One hundred percent,” Hoerner said. “Waking up, I felt it. I wish the ivy could turn, but we probably need another week of cold weather. It feels the way it should be, for sure. It felt weird sweating against the Padres so much (last week).”
Walking around the ballpark before the game, talking to ballhawks, bleacher bums and normal folks, everyone seemed to be in agreement on one thing: Taillon would be fine, and as long as the offense woke up and gave him a little support, the Cubs could get back in the series.
The wind was blowing in at 10 mph, which is par for the course at Wrigley, which once favored hitters but is now considered a pitcher’s park.
“Embrace the conditions, know the conditions,” manager Craig Counsell said. “That’s what we’ve tried to stress.”
Yet there was still that inevitable sense of dread that accompanies any do-or-die game involving a professional sports team from Chicago — the inescapable feeling the Cubs could out-Cub themselves, just as the Bears double-doinked themselves out of the 2018 postseason with Cody Parkey’s missed field-goal attempt off the upright, then the crossbar.
Sure enough, it happened in the top of the first inning. A botched infield popup fell between catcher Carson Kelly and first baseman Michael Busch with two on and one out, loading the bases with Sal Frelick coming to the plate. It was the kind of Cubbie Occurrence that only could happen to a franchise with a history as bizarre as the Cubs.
“Michael just clearly just lost it,” Counsell said. “He had no idea where the ball was. The wind put the ball in a place that was just no-man’s land for everybody. Nico and Dansby went after it, but the umps got it right.”
The infield fly rule was not called because no player was camped under the ball.
“The ruling makes sense,” Hoerner said. “Unless the out is assumed they don’t call it, and we didn’t have a fielder in the area. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that one. It’s a funky play.”
When Frelick brought home the first run with a sacrifice fly, the missed pop-up loomed large. But Taillon got out of the inning with no further damage, and the Cubs answered back quickly on a Busch leadoff home run, his second of the series, and a two-run single by Pete Crow-Armstrong.
That would signal the start of a four-run inning, the first time the Cubs would score more than three runs in a game this postseason. The offense had returned at long last, and the crowd of 40,737 heaved a collective sigh of relief. No one knew it would be the last they’d see of the Cubs offense, but fans stood for almost the entire bottom of the first, an indication they knew how important it was to get going things early.
The Cubs had entered the day with a .216 average and 58 strikeouts over their first five games, with only Busch, Hoerner and Seiya Suzuki stepping up from the regular lineup, which Counsell declined to tweak for Game 3 because … well, you know Counsell by now.
More Top Picks Mice
Taillon started cruising after the first, retiring nine straight until the Brewers strung together three straight singles in the fourth, pulling within two on Jake Bauers’ RBI single. But a bunt by Brandon Lockridge led to a rundown with Caleb Durbin tagged out between third and home, and Taillon escaped further damage by inducing Joey Ortiz to ground to third.
The Cubs offense went back into its shell against former Cubs lefty Jose Quintana, just as it had after Suzuki’s three-run, first-inning home run in Game 2. Crow-Armstrong slammed his helmet in the dugout after striking out with two on in the third, keeping his helmet-tossing streak alive, and Kyle Tucker got caught straying off first in the fifth inning, like a bus with a flat tire ignoring a speed bump in a 30-mph zone.
It was apparent they would not do this the easy way.
The Cubs gotta Cub.
When Bauers homered into the left-field bleachers on Andrew Kittredge’s first pitch in the seventh under an orange and pink sky, the Cubs lead was suddenly down to one run and that old, queasy feeling was back again.
Singles by Hoerner and Tucker in the seventh handed the Cubs another opportunity to pad the lead, but Suzuki grounded into a force and Ian Happ struck out to end the threat. Another nail-biting finish was in the works, and there was no escaping. When Keller struck Bauers out with the bases loaded to end the eighth, the crowd erupted.
After his shaky outing in the ninth inning of Game 3 of the wild-card series, Keller said he had to flush it and slow things down when he got to two strikes. It worked, and he came up with the biggest save of his career to keep the Cubs alive.
“We’ve got more ball to play, for sure,” Crow-Armstrong said.
Nobody promised normalcy when they stuck that first Cubs pacifier in your mouth as a baby. You were doomed to experience days like this.
All you can do is embrace the feeling, cross your fingers and remember to breathe.