To borrow a phrase from the first team I remember, the 1983 Sox, winning ugly pretty much defined the Cubs victory on Wednesday night over the Reds. After blowing a big lead, it took a wild pitch in the bottom of a strange 9th inning to give the Cubs that W. We’ll take it anyway we can get it.
Ain’t that the truth? A win is a win; don’t really care how it comes. For the Cubs this year, if it happens, then that’s how it’s going to happen. It’s not 2016 anymore, when the Cubs cruised through the regular season, and thrilled us with the most exciting postseason of all time. Nope, it’s a whole new year, and the Cubs aren’t cruising anywhere. They maintained their 1.5 game lead over Milwaukee; St. Louis is now 2.5 games back.
I had to get up early, so I was fading fast during the Cubs game. It was 6-4 when I said “screw it”, I’m going to sleep. I remember my watch buzzing with a text message; it was my friend who is a Reds’ fan. It said “Boom”; well that can’t be good. I rolled over and asked my wife to check; yep, it was all tied up. I buried my head back in the pillow.. until the bottom of the 9th.
I woke up to see the highlight of Baez sliding into 2nd to start the inning, and then saw Jay walk. Then it got interesting. Zobrist got hit by a pitch trying to bunt the runners over. They said he offered at the pitch, called a strike, and called him back to the plate. What a horrible call. Maddon went off. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him madder; maybe he needed to release a little bit of that stress and tension from this year’s up & down journey. He did, and he was sent packing.
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During this inning, I had checked in on the Red Sox Cardinals game on my phone. I happily saw the score update from 4-3 Cardinals, to 5-4 Red Sox in the bottom of the 9th on Mookie Betts walk off double. Guess there were some calls that went against St. Louis. Matheny got tossed, Molina was pissed, plus he wasn’t able to scoop the throw for that game ending play at the plate. I smiled. Burn birds, burn!
Back at it on Thursday afternoon with these bottom feeders. No way can we let them split this series with us; we gave them one game, that’s plenty for this minor league talent laden pitching staff. Votto also broke his streak of getting on base at least 2 times. He came up one short of Ted Williams’ record. Poor Joey.
Yes, like the season, this game was not pretty, but at the end of the day, there are no style points. There are wins and there are losses. Only the die hard fan will remember how some should have went the other way… how some games were blown… how some games were saved. It was win number 63 for the Cubbies, which is good for 7 over, and most importantly, that division lead that they have not relinquished since they finally got it. Don’t think they’ll be pulling away any time soon, but that’s OK too. They only need to be 1 game better than the 2nd place team. I think they can find a way to do that. Go Cubs!
MK
Winning ugly. A win is a win is a win. Dont matter how you get it done. I recall the 2016 Cubs walking off on a couple wild pitches, possibly back to back games, too. So the 2017 Cubs are nowhere near last year, but who really cares. It was not going to be easy, but the Cubs still lead the nl central. They took a page out of the 2016 Cubs win book and won by a walk off wild pitch…those are the breaks. Sometimes you need those breaks or a lucky situation during the season. Just win baby! The Cubs did and continue to stay on top of the nl central. Simmer down Joe, all is well! GO CUBS GO!!!