The Chicago Cubs finally can take the postseason bunting out of the mothballs.
Playoff baseball will return to Wrigley Field next week for the first time in five years, and for the first time with fans inside the ballpark since 2018.
The Cubs clinched home field for their National League wild-card series with a 7-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday. All games in their best-of-three series against the San Diego Padres will be at Wrigley beginning Tuesday.
Michael Busch drove in four runs and went 4-for-4 with a pair of home runs, a double and a triple, Jameson Taillon threw six strong innings and the Cubs survived a late scare before a raucous crowd of 38,035 on a gorgeous 78-degree afternoon.
The game’s loudest moment, however, came in the eighth when Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol ordered an intentional walk to Busch from reliever Jorge Alcala with two outs, a runner on third and a four-run deficit, depriving the Cubs first baseman of a chance to hit for the cycle.
The boos over the classless move could be heard all the way to Evanston.
After the Cubs disclosed the disappointing news before the game that Cade Horton’s recent injury was a right rib fracture that would prevent him from pitching for what President Jed Hoyer called “the foreseeable future,” Taillon looked more than ready to fill his spot in the wild-card series — and beyond if the Cubs advance.
Taillon allowed one run on three hits over six innings, finishing his injury-marred season at 11-7 with a 3.68 ERA. His only mistake was serving up a fourth-inning solo home run to Nolan Arenado. Taillon has allowed two or fewer runs in his last seven starts and is 4-1 with a 1.57 ERA in six second-half starts.
Busch’s first home run leading off the bottom of the first gave the Cubs an early lead, and a two-run shot in the fifth — his 34th of the season — snapped a 1-1 tie. Suzuki cranked a solo home run in the sixth, his fourth in the last three games after going homerless in his previous 38 games.
Better late than never?
“Hitting is one of those things where a breakthrough can happen with any small thing in my mind,” Suzuki said through an interpreter of his recent surge. “If it had happened earlier, great. It’s a little late, but if I can keep this up going into the playoffs, I think it will help the team.”
After the Cardinals pulled within a run on Jordan Walker’s two-run home run off Caleb Thielbar in the seventh, the Cubs added an insurance run on Busch’s RBI triple in the bottom of the inning. Pete Crow-Armstrong’s two-run home run in the eighth off the right-field video board let everyone relax for the ninth.
This wild Cubs season has had quite a few highs and lows, from opening day in Tokyo to Saturday’s win that clinched the home wild-card series. But in the end they’re where they wanted to be — playing October baseball at Wrigley Field.
After the Cubs went 83-79 in Counsell’s first year, he said the goal should be to construct a 90-win team. The Cubs did just that, and are now at 91 wins with one game remaining Sunday.
“Look, if you get to that number there’s a really good chance you’re talking about the playoffs, and that’s the first goal everyone wants to accomplish is just to be involved in October,” Counsell said. “And that number is going to get you there 19 out of 20 years. And it has this year. Our number last year might have gotten us there this year.”