The Red Line train rumbles in and out of Wrigleyville at all hours of the day and night on its way to the nearby Addison Street station, the ka-thunk, ka-thunk, ka-thunk giving the Chicago Cubs’ neighborhood ballpark a steady — if irregular — heartbeat.
The Red Line might as well refer to baseball’s postseason.
This is the time of year when pitchers are asked to push beyond their physical and mental limits, to throw as hard and focus as intently as they ever have, even as the stakes continue to climb. To redline their arms and minds until the manager takes the ball away.
This is the time of year when men — OK, one man: Mason Miller — are capable of throwing a baseball 104.5 mph.
“The adrenaline helps,” Miller said.
Padres relievers delivered Wednesday, working a combined 5 1/3 innings of one-hit ball and striking out six as they staved off elimination with a 3-0 win over the Cubs at Wrigley Field. The teams will play a decisive Game 3 in the National League wild-card series Thursday.
Modern managers tend to be proactive with their pitching in October, especially when a loss means elimination. But by calling on their fireballers early, they often play with fire.
There’s a fine line between clever and too cute, between pushing all the right buttons and stepping on a rake.
Two decisions — one made Tuesday evening by the Cubs, the other made in Wednesday’s fourth inning by the Padres — illustrate the peril and payoff when it comes to the pen.
Cubs manager Craig Counsell managed his bullpen masterfully in Game 1, deploying closer Daniel Palencia to quell a Padres rally with one out in the fifth inning. Palencia and fellow relievers Drew Pomeranz, Andrew Kittredge and Brad Keller combined to retire the final 15 Padres in order, striking out four of them, and the Cubs won the opener 3-1.
Counsell went against baseball convention. How did it work out? He was as popular around here as the Pope.
Then the Cubs announced that Kittredge, who had pitched Tuesday’s eighth inning, would start Game 2.
Rake, meet face.
Kittredge allowed back-to-back singles to Fernando Tatis Jr. and Luis Arraez to start Wednesday’s game, gave up a double-steal with one out and then watched as Jackson Merrill gave the Padres a 1-0 lead with a sacrifice fly.
Like that, the Padres — who had been held scoreless in 33 of their previous 34 playoff innings dating to last year — had a path to victory.
“Sometimes you get really good hitters and they get a hit. What are you going to do?” Counsell said postgame.
The Padres remained up by one in the fourth when manager Mike Shildt pushed a button of his own. Starter Dylan Cease, who had been excellent with the season on the line, allowed a two-out double to Seiya Suzuki.
Shildt called for an intentional walk to Carson Kelly — who, like Suzuki, had homered in Game 1 — and then pulled Cease for Adrián Morejón. The lefty got two quick strikes on the left-handed-hitting Pete Crow-Armstrong with high-90s sinkers, wasted a slider, and then threw a 98-mph sinker low and away that Crow-Armstrong rolled to Arraez at first base. Furious, the young Cubs star fired his helmet up the baseline and into right field as soon as he was called out.
Morejón pitched the fifth and sixth, Miller the seventh and eighth — he hit 104.5 in a strikeout of Kelly to end his first inning — and Robert Suárez the ninth.
“We’re continuing on the same thing we’ve done all year round,” Morejón said through interpreter Jorge Merlos. “I’m happy that we have a whole bunch of guys that know how to do their job, that everyone’s capable of doing their job out there to get outs.”
Shildt was quick to note that it’s not just Padres pitchers who redline every appearance in the playoffs.
“If you’re going to pitch in the big leagues, especially now, you’re going to have a plus arm,” he said. “We had fire coming out everywhere around this league.”
What makes the Padres bullpen so impressive, Shildt said, is its “ability to trust their stuff and be aggressive.” Consider: Morejón, Miller and Suárez all threw harder than their season averages Wednesday, with Miller averaging a whopping 103 mph on his 11 fastballs. The extra juice did little to harm their control; the relievers didn’t walk a batter.
“All these guys are really special with their arm talent — Morejón, Miller, Suárez — but the impressive thing is they have pitches,” Shildt said. “They’re pitching, and they’re not going to make a situation bigger than it is.
“That says a lot for them. It’s a separator.”