Don’t look now. Don’t mind us. We’re just poking our head out; what’s going on over here on this side of 500? Long time no see. After beating the Cardinals in spectacular fashion on Friday night in St. Louis, the Cubs registered their 7th win in a row, and in the process, have peeked over 500 for the first time in 2.5 months. Mojo rising…
The Cardinals didn’t really have much to say on the offensive side of things outside of 2 Lars Nootbar solo home runs. He greeted both Wesneski and Smyly with bombs, but never fear, clean-shaven Wisdom is here. Yes, with the mustache gone, Wisdom lined one into the left center bleachers to cut the lead in half. Then, with a Swanson sac fly, and hold on a second, a Trey Mancini (?!?!) go ahead single, the Cubs held on to a 3-2 lead. The Cubs had multiple chances to tack on insurance runs with no success. Normally, when this happens, it never fails; the other team ties it up and/or takes the lead. And… that’s what almost happened in the bottom of the 9th.
Of course Willson lead off the proceedings with a base hit, followed by another base hit from O’Neill; 1st and 2nd, nobody out. What followed were two defensive gems that secured the W. First one was turned in by our solid middle infielders. This was the part of the team that I felt the best about coming into the season. The acquisition of Dansby Swanson to go along with my favorite Cubs not named Hendricks, Nico Hoerner, made me feel warm and fuzzy about our up the middle infield. Nico fielded a smash going to his left, spun and threw to Dansby, who grabbed it and fired back to first for the twin killing; one more out to go. What came next was the defensive play of the year for the Cubbies IMO. Dude hits a blast to straight away CF; Tauchman goes back… he’s got it. He keeps going back… oh shit. He gets to the wall and jumps… and robs a game winning HR; no shit. What a catch; I’ve probably only seen it about a dozen times so far. Unbelievable ending to a tight played division game between two long time rivals. We tend to see it all when these two teams meet. In fact, we’ve seen this exact ending before, remember?
I had to double check the year, but it was 2017. Leonys Martin would make the only play that I recall in his Cubs career, robbing a HR in the bottom of the 9th, ending the Cardinals season; I’m sure I wrote about it, but I’m too lazy to check. This one didn’t quite end the Cardinals season, although 2 more Ws this weekend may. While the Cubs are hopefully turning into buyers, the Cards are slowly turning into sellers; two ships passing in the night. I like it.
At 52-51, the Cubs sit 4.5 games out of 1st place; we still have a third of the season left to go. If the Cubs sell now… I think I’ll lose my damn mind. Haven’t bought in all year partially because of the perceived inevitable sell at the deadline. Have seen this team come together, what feels to me for real this time, playing their best baseball of the season. I’m starting to feel it again. Are the Cubbies back? Stay tuned.
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