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Imrem: And it all started for Chicago Cubs with a simple bunt

Forget “Cubs win! Cubs win!”

Before that could be the chant after Game 4 of the NLCS at Los Angeles, a more modest accomplishment was required.

“Cubs score! Cubs score!”

Didn't someone write long ago, “It's not whether you win or lose but whether you can drive home one measly run?”

The Cubs beat the Dodgers 10-2 but only after their offense located home plate.

Now the series is tied at 2-2 and certain to return to Wrigley Field regardless of what happens in Game 5 on Thursday night.

After the Dodgers shut them out in two straight games, the Cubs scored 4 runs in the fourth inning Wednesday night.

It didn't take much to get the rally going. Heck, if the Cubs knew it was this simple, they might have tried it a couple of games sooner.

Ben Zobrist reached on a bunt single for the Cubs' first hit of the game. Willson Contreras drove in the breakthrough run. And struggling Addison Russell climaxed the inning with a 2-run homer over the right-center field fence.

Cubs 4, Dodgers 0 … slump over … or at least interrupted.

Before you could say boom, the Cubs were in double figures.

And to think, the burst began with a bunt.

“Whenever I give (Zobrist) a sign it doesn't work,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “I'm glad he thought of it on his own.”

The 10-run game came after the Cubs had become postseason punch lines, including TV analyst Pete Rose wondering how they won 103 games with that offense.

If that weren't embarrassing enough, the next step was to read how badly they were abused in Wednesday morning's Los Angeles Times.

One writer wrote, “The Chicago Cubs are choking again.”

The “again” alludes to all the times the Cubs squandered chances to make it to the World Series.

Ouch.

A Times columnist wrote that the Cubs resembled “the last several years of the San Diego Padres.”

Ouch squared.

The next move was up to the Cubs.

They could shrivel up in the corner of the batter's box and quiver when the next Dodgers pitcher threw his next curveball.

Or the Cubs could buckle up, stand at the plate with bad intentions and rip that pitch and the next pitch and pitch after pitch.

That's what happened in that big fourth inning and beyond.

The Cubs didn't panic and they didn't even outwardly project urgency.

Panic and urgency aren't Maddon's nature. He preaches patience and prefers to tweak a slump rather than nuke it.

Turning over a buffet table wasn't likely. A curfew for players wasn't going to be instituted. Changing hotels, bus routes and pregame routines wouldn't happen.

Not even batting practice, which Maddon believes is meaningless, would be mandatory.

The biggest non-move was that Maddon didn't bench the slumping Russell and Jason Heyward, and those two had 3 of the 4 RBI in the fateful fourth inning.

“I can't get over the top and take a trip to negative town now just because we've had two tough days,” Maddon said. “I have a lot of faith and trust in our players.”

Those players were going to have to fix this thing by taking a personal inventory of themselves, muster some pride and stick it to Larry King sitting in his primo seat directly behind home plate.

On this night, the Cubs were back to being the Cubs that won 103 games.

“Cubs score! … Cubs score!”

And it started with a bunt.

mimrem@dailyherald.com

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