Chicago Cubs advance to NLCS with big rally
Seemingly on their way home fit to be tied, the Chicago Cubs showed their remarkable resiliency again Tuesday night.
They rallied for 4 runs in the top of the ninth inning to stun the San Francisco Giants 6-5 in Game 4 of the National League division series to win it three games to one. The Cubs advance to the National League championship series, which opens Saturday at Wrigley Field against either the Dodgers or Nationals.
Javier Baez, a defensive whiz throughout the series, singled with one out off Hunter Strickland to drive in the go-ahead run.
Giants manager Bruce Bochy trotted out four relief pitchers before Strickland, and each put a man on base.
Derek Law began the ninth by giving up a single to Kris Bryant. Javier Lopez walked Anthony Rizzo. Sergio Romo gave up an RBI double to Ben Zobrist. Will Smith gave up a 2-run pinch single to Willson Contreras, tying the game. One out later, Baez singled.
Until the ninth, the Cubs had managed 2 hits, and they were faced with the real possibility of going home Thursday for a deciding Game 5.
“We always yell after a game, 'We never quit, we never quit,' and there you go: We never quit,” said manager Joe Maddon, who has led the Cubs to the NLCS in each of his first two years with the Cubs. “What can I say, man? Everything fell into place.”
It fell into place suddenly, after a baffling night when the Cubs hardly touched Giants starting pitcher Matt Moore.
The Giants chased Cubs starting pitcher John Lackey after four innings, as San Francisco held a 3-1 lead. The Cubs scored a run in the third on David Ross' leadoff homer.
They added another in the fifth when Baez hustled all the way to third on a throwing error and scored on a sacrifice fly by Ross.
Still, things were worrisome for the Cubs' brass.
“It's never a good feeling when we're not ourselves,” said team president Theo Epstein, decked out in shorts and T-shirt in the champagne-soaked visitors clubhouse at AT&T Park. “That wasn't us. We weren't having championship-caliber at-bats for those eight innings.
“I knew we were going to snap out of it. I wanted to hurry up and snap out of it before it was (Giants pitchers Johnny) Cueto and MadBum (Madison Bumgarner) in Game 5 with a big strike zone.”
The ninth-inning rally took care of that, and Aroldis Chapman struck out the side in the bottom half to stun the Giants fans in the crowd of 43,166. The many Cubs fans stayed behind, sang “Go Cubs Go” and cheered the players and staff who came back onto the field after the game.
If there was an MVP to this series, it would be Baez, who made dazzling play after dazzling play in the field.
“Absolutely,” said Maddon. “How could he not be? I think he should get the Corvette.”
Baez also displayed sharp baserunning and then got the decisive hit in the ninth.
“Well, I think the game of baseball is a game of 27 outs,” he said. “We can't give up because we're down. We were fighting and fighting until we finally got two men on base and Willson came in and tied the game.”
As for the MVP, Baez said: “It feels pretty good. I don't want to take that, sit back and relax now. I just want to be MVP for the next series and be MVP for the next one (the World Series).”
The way this kid is going, don't put it past him.
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