Rozner: If it feels like the Chicago Cubs are hanging on by a thread, it's because they are

It felt like Wednesday's was a must-win game.

It felt like the biggest match of the year.

It felt like it was slipping away for the Chicago Cubs.

And even after winning 7-6 in extras Wednesday night at Wrigley Field, it still felt that way after the Cubs survived against the Pirates.

There was a certain grimness about the ballpark Wednesday afternoon, an atmosphere of something just short of desperation, but tiptoeing right up to that line.

That's what happens when they're all playoff games the final week of September, when the final week was supposed to be a coronation instead of an all-out conflict.

With the Brewers in full sprint and the Cubs limping to the finish line, it all felt like it was getting away from the Cubs as Jose Quintana took the mound on a night the Cubs could have fallen from first place for the first time since July 14.

Maybe it shouldn't be all that shocking if you take a realistic view, the Cubs losing two closers, and getting nothing from Yu Darvish and Tyler Chatwood on top of an ailing Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber and Jason Heyward, an eerily quiet Anthony Rizzo and Addison Russell sent home, probably for the year.

Meanwhile, Javy Baez was the main reason the Cubs were leading the National League most of the summer, but teams are giving him nothing to hit as they see the rest of the lineup struggle to give him any help.

Quintana managed to get through 5 innings and the Cubs had a 6-2 lead, seemingly enough against a Pirates team playing out the string.

But the Cubs failed to add on when they had the chance and then the bullpen gave up a pair of runs in both the eighth and ninth and the game went to extras.

The Cubs won in the 10th on an Albert Almora RBI single, reducing their magic number to 4, and with a win Thursday night could knock it down to 3.

The Cubs did clinch a wild-card berth at worst - the first time in their history they've reached the playoffs four straight years - but they still have bigger titles in mind, starting with the division.

After one more with Pittsburgh, the Cubs get the Cardinals, who were just swept at home by Milwaukee, which gets the woeful Tigers at home to finish the season.

But the victory hardly left fans with much confidence, not with the way the Cubs have struggled of late and not with the way they blew a late lead, with no closer and an offense that leaves much to be desired.

The Brewers are firing on all cylinders, and the Cubs are sputtering at the worst possible time.

But … maybe this was the shock to the system they needed, the moment the Cubs took a collective deep breath and remembered they were the Cubs.

Funny how quickly it can turn in baseball, a single huge at-bat or play in the field changing fortunes and giving the team a burst of confidence.

It's been relatively easy the last few years in that respect, so many players capable of getting that big hit for the Cubs, when now it seems as if it's Baez or nothing.

Yet, in talking to Cubs players, they don't seem to be carrying the angst that fans do, continuing to believe in what they're capable of on a given day.

It's usually that way with athletes. They don't feel the same pain because they're too busy doing their jobs - or trying to do their jobs - to feel the anguish a fan does when you have no control over the outcome.

Nevertheless, the Cubs are obviously squeezing the bats pretty tight - failing repeatedly with runners in scoring position - and they understand what's at stake.

Perhaps, the Almora basehit was the one they had been waiting for, someone doing something big and unexpected.

It's possible, in theory, that they can still find some measure of health and some measure of form before the postseason begins, that they can again be the team that's been best in the league for the last few months, the one that on paper is the best in the National League.

It's just a brutal time to be searching for late-inning relief and someone to produce runs when teams like the Brewers and Rockies are playing like they can't lose a game.

If the Cubs were able to turn it around starting next week, they wouldn't be the first team to stumble into the playoffs, hit the reset button and get hot, as difficult as that seems to believe after another tough night at the ballpark.

In any case, the Cubs have four games remaining and control their destiny, remaining alone in first place for another day.

They could at least sleep on that Wednesday night - if they slept at all.