Good gawd, Chicago. This Cubs party gets more epic by the game.
This is the second straight year the Cubs have reached the NL Championship Series, but so much already is different.
The Cubs never led during the four games they lost to the Mets in 2015, so it has to feel sensational to grab a 1-0 series lead over the Dodgers. And to do it with a mic drop of of an eighth inning?! Off-the-charts sensational.
Catch your breath, because Game 2 is Sunday (7:08 p.m., Fox Sports 1); the pitching matchup will be Cubs righty Kyle Hendricks vs. Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw.
On Saturday, a set of explosive highlights pushed the Cubs to seven wins from a title.
Grand. Slam.
The feeling in Chicago was nauseated at best when the scrappy Dodgers tied the game at 3 with two runs in the eighth. Then it looked like the Cubs would leave the bases loaded in the bottom of the inning.
Miguel “Miggy” Montero had other ideas. The veteran catcher launched an 0-2 slider deep into the right-field bleachers for a grand slam.
“It was a good slider for me; it was not a good slider [for Dodgers pitcher Joe Blanton],” he told Fox Sports 1 afterward.
The fans at Wrigley were barely finished with their curtain call for Montero when Fowler blasted one into the right-field basket. Cubs win.
Baez being Baez
After Javier Baez figuratively stole the show in the Division Series against the Giants, he literally did it Saturday. In the second inning, Baez …
… Drove in Jayson Heyward with a bloop double to left-center. We repeat: He hustled into second on a soft fly ball that barely dented the outfield grass.
… Advanced to third on a wild pitch.
… Drew a pickoff throw to third by the Dodgers catcher Carlos Ruiz because he stretched his lead too far, then took off and stole home.
He’s the first Cubs player to steal home in a postseason game since 1907. Even more mind-boggling: He’s the first Cubs player to ever have two extra-base hits and a stolen base in the same postseason game. Tip your cap, folks.
Dexter Fowler can fly
By the time the top of the fourth inning was over, the Cubs center fielder had made not one but two diving catches to rob the Dodgers of what would have been a pair of doubles at the very least. He even broke his belt and after he laid out to snag a line drive off the bat of Carlos Ruiz.
Oh, he also singled in the first inning and scored the game’s first run. Every time he has a night like this, Cubs management can deservedly pat itself on the back for re-signing him this offseason.
Fowler: “I was workin’ my belt off,” Fowler told Fox Sports 1 after the game, using the most obvious but at the same time the most perfect joke. “They fixed it, so I’m good now.” We’ll say.
3 DOWN
Rizzo’s bat still missing
Not a great night for Anthony Rizzo at the plate. The Cubs first baseman is now 1-for-20 with six strikeouts in the 2016 playoffs. Granted, the Cubs lineup has been on fire when it counts, but to win seven more games without contributions from one of their MVP candidates could be difficult.
Can’t you give it to a kid?
Even in the postseason, the tradition of throwing opponents’ home run balls back onto the field seems awfully silly. One of these days they’re going to hit a Cubs outfielder in the back of the head, like some Yankees fan did to Brett Gardner in 2015. Luckily that didn’t happen Saturday when a Cubs fan chucked Andre Ethier’s solo shot back toward home plate. If you don’t want the ball, see if the Dodgers will give you something for it. Sell it on eBay. Or better yet, just give it to a child, please.
Sooooo not the same thing
You just know Joe Buck had a Steve Bartman reference in his pocket he couldn’t wait to use. He got his chance when Rizzo saw a soft foul ball go in and out of glove and fall into the stands as he stretched over the tarp down the first-base line. The fact that it happened in the eighth inning, like the infamous Bartman play, must have made it seem more “appropriate.”
Yeah, not buying it. This was not an elimination game and fans didn’t interfere with Rizzo. Please shelve all Bartman references until Game 6. Even then, use sparingly.
@redeyesportschi | chsosa@redeyechicago.com
![There’ll be more than one story to write about “Sundance Institute x Chicago,” coming to town June 28-30. Consider these to be some preliminary questions to be answered in a couple of months. A sort of pop-up import, sponsored by the Chicago Film Office and Choose Chicago, the city’s tourism bureau, “Sundance Institute x Chicago” is the power of branding incarnate. The event will consist of a modest four-screening package of titles that premiered in January at the annual Sundance Film Festival of Park City, Utah fame. The off-screen activity’s the apparent bigger deal: panels, discussions, filmmaker-centric meetups, patterned after […]](https://www.chicagotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/CTC-L-Sundance-01.jpg?w=579 "There’ll be more than one story to write about “Sundance Institute x Chicago,” coming to town June 28-30. Consider these to be some preliminary questions to be answered in a couple of months. A sort of pop-up import, sponsored by the Chicago Film Office and Choose Chicago, the city’s tourism bureau, “Sundance Institute x Chicago” is the power of branding incarnate. The event will consist of a modest four-screening package of titles that premiered in January at the annual Sundance Film Festival of Park City, Utah fame. The off-screen activity’s the apparent bigger deal: panels, discussions, filmmaker-centric meetups, patterned after […]")
