Fly the W: Cubs win series against Braves and move into wildcard spot |
CHICAGO - It is no secret that the Chicago Cubs (58-54) are the hottest team in baseball, but no one saw this coming. Winners of 13 of their last 16 games, the Cubs have not only moved into second place in the NL Central but have taken over the final Wild Card spot. They have officially become a team that no one wants to face, and they are an exciting team to watch.
Already with a winning homestand against a former first-place team in Cincinnati and the best team in baseball, the Atlanta Braves (70-39), the Cubs had an opportunity to not only steal a rare series from the Braves but to finish off their homestand with a 5-2 record. Considering their Ace Justin Steele was on the mound, facing Charlie Morton, you had to like the Cubs chances. Steele was good but not great on the mound, as he needed 110 pitches to get through 5 1/3 innings. He walked four, struck out seven, and was charged with four runs, with three coming as earned. Again, not a great start, but against a Braves offense as talented as theirs is, it was certainly a good start. Steele's effort was good enough as the Cubs jumped on Morton and chased him after allowing five runs in 4 1/3 as the Cubs closed out their 5-2 homestand with a 6-4 win against the Braves to take over the final Wild Card spot in the NL. “It was a great homestand,” said Mike Tauchman after the win. “I think it's no secret, the thought across the league is that the National League is running through the Braves right now. It's a really good team over there. For us to be able to get a series win against them, it’s evidence that if we execute the way that we can, if we play baseball the way that we can, we can compete with anybody.” Facing an offense like the Braves, you have to limit your mistakes, and after allowing a one-out single to Ozzie Albies in the first and walking Matt Olson, Steele managed to keep the Braves off the board. The same can be said for Morton during the first two innings, although he had a much easier time navigating through the Cubs lineup than Steele did with the Braves. With the game tied 0-0 in the third, the Braves broke the scoreless tie as the Cubs fell behind by a pair. Ronald Acuna Jr continued his torrid pace this season with a leadoff single, but was still standing on the bases with two outs. On the verge of getting out of another inning without further damage, Matt Olson unloaded for his second homer in as many days and 39th blast of the season as the Braves jumped in front 2-0. Credit the Cubs for not only showing the fight that they have shown the past month but for answering the Braves by showing patience at the plate. A one-out walk to Miguel Amaya got things rolling, with Mike Tauchman taking a walk shortly after. Nico Hoerner kept the line moving with a hit-by-pitch to load the bases, with Ian Happ coming through with an RBI forceout to make things 2-1. The Cubs continued to show their patience, with Cody Bellinger taking a walk to load the bases, followed by the Dansby Swanson walk to pull the Cubs even 2-2. The score remained tied until the fifth inning when Acuna Jr started another Braves rally with a one-out double. Albies would follow that up with a sharply hit single to right field as Tauchman came up firing and gunned Acuna Jr out at the plate. That play not only had significance during this inning, but you could argue that it was the play of the game as the Cubs killed what could have been an even bigger rally. An error later in the inning kept things rolling for the Braves, but another RBI hit for Olson gave the Braves a 3-2 lead. Like in the third when the Braves opened the scoring, the Cubs responded with a massive fifth inning as Tauchman opened things up with a single. He would eventually steal second base before coming home to score the Happ single to tie things up 3-3. With Happ on first, Bellinger came through with another massive hit as his RBI double put the Cubs in front for good as they took a 4-3 lead. Jeimer Candelario would add a two-out RBI single to cap off the three-run fifth as the Cubs led 5-3 after five. Although the offense gave the Cubs the lead, as everyone has seen in this series, no lead is safe against this Braves team. Walking the first two hitters to begin the sixth didn't make things any easier, as Steele was in a tough spot. After getting Kevin Pillar to lineout for the first out, Michael Harris Jr kept the line moving with a single as the Braves had the bases loaded and one out. That was it for Steele, as David Ross got what he needed from the lefty and went with Michael Fulmer out of the pen. Fulmer couldn't have gotten off to a worse start as he hit Acuna Jr to push in a run, as the Braves would pull within 5-4. Fulmer would bounce back and bounced back in a big way as he struck out the next two hitters to get out of the jam. “I’m just glad I can come through for the team,” Fulmer said after the game. “In a game like this, and the way this team’s been playing, it’s been unbelievable. I feel like this is as close to a playoff atmosphere as I can imagine.” That set the tone for the rest of the day as the Cubs struck out 13 Braves in the game, with seven coming from Steele and six from the pen as Jose Cuas pitched an easy seventh with two more punchouts. Still holding their 5-4 lead in the seventh, the Cubs felt they needed a bit more offense, and a one-out single from Bellinger was a start in the right direction. Bellinger would steal second base to put himself in scoring position ahead of the massive Swanson double that gave the Cubs a 6-4 lead. That would be all the offense on the day for either team as Mark Leiter Jr pitched a scoreless eighth before Adbert Alzolay worked around a leadoff double in the ninth to close things out 6-4. “Momentum is a powerful thing,” Ross said to reporters. “When you play well, and then you get the backing of the front office, I think that helps the momentum. That helps the confidence and helps belief. When you're winning, you just start to expect to win and find a way. The focus just ticks up a little bit more.” Ross knows the job is not complete just because they are on a roll right now. “That is a really good team we just played, it was a really good homestand we just had and I'm proud of that,” Ross said. “But we’ve got a lot of work to do, there’s a lot of games. Fifty left, so there's a long way to go.” With the win, the Cubs have now moved into a tie with the Reds, but given that they have fewer losses, they are ahead of the Reds and occupy the final Wild Card spot. Chicago is also just one game behind the Milwaukee Brewers for first place in the division, as they are starting to put the pressure on in a big way. Tauchman and Bellinger led the way with two hits as the Cubs had seven hits in the game. Chicago will now head to New York to begin a six-game road trip as they will face the Mets Monday through Wednesday.
