Playoff baseball is alive and well, ladies and gentlemen.
What started out as a fierce duel between a pair of pitchers reversed in postseason experience later turned into a show of resilience, fundamental play, questionable umpire calls and sheer madness.
After more than five hours of baseball in the National League Wild Card Game, the Colorado Rockies walked off of Wrigley Field victorious as they defeated the Chicago Cubs by a score of 2 runs to 1. They will advance to face the NL Central division champion Milwaukee Brewers in the NLDS, where the first game of that series will take place this Thursday in Miller Park.
This game had everything you imagined a postseason game would have. Nerves were intense, butt-clenching was at its max, hearts were racing and everyone held their breath with each pitch thrown as the game went on.
This marathon began with a sudden onslaught from the Colorado offense in the first inning to Cubs’ starting pitcher Jon Lester. With a combination of teamwork from the first three batters of the game, the Rockies scored first blood through a sacrifice fly by Nolan Arenado to send Charlie Blackmon home. It was a small blemish that Lester would eventually brush off as he then proceeded to put zeros on the board next to Colorado’s name, thereby helping his team remain in the fight to tie the game up. In the end, Lester threw for six innings while giving up four hits, one earned run, and one walk while also striking out nine batters. A truly high-class performance from the 34-year old left-hander.
The same can be said for Kyle Freeland, the pitcher selected beforehand by Rockies manager Bud Black to start the Wild Card Game. As a 25-year old pitcher with no prior postseason experience and at short rest, one would think that Freeland would falter in his pitching due to the high nerves the playoffs entails on young players. But no, Freeland was just as dominant as Lester, for he threw six & 2/3 innings with no allowed runs, effectively shutting out the Cubs in the process. Along with one walk and six strikeouts, Freeland cemented his place as the top dog in the Colorado rotation after pitching the best game of his life.
Fast forwarding to the bottom of the eighth inning, with the Cubs being pushed to four more outs until their impending elimination, a string of hits by Anthony Rizzo and Javier Baez produced the team’s first run which equaled the issue at a run a piece. Before Baez’s game-tying double though, Cubs manager John Maddon subbed Rizzo out for Terrance Gore, a man well-known for his base-running capabilities over everything else. Should Baez get a hit, Gore, with his quick legs, can get home faster while not giving the Rockies the chance to tag him as he’s running to home plate. It was a risky yet clever move executed by Maddon to get that sacred run.
After the two starting pitchers’ exits, the game fell into the hands of the bullpen, as both managers used a total of 13 pitchers to go the distance against of each other. It was essentially a battle of chess since they were calculating each other’s moves to find the best counter that can produce a favorable advantage for their team.
Eventually, the game went into extra innings, and that prompted Maddon to use his starting pitchers Cole Hamels and Kyle Hendricks to throw in relief. Hey, in a game like this, all hands were definitely on deck for the Cubs. Moreover, for the Rockies, Black relied on respected relievers such as Wade Davis, Adam Ottavino, Seunghwan Oh and Scott Oberg. He had plenty of arms ready to assist him in his time of need like his counterpart, so Black was fine with extending the game whichever way he wants.
In the eleventh inning, a noteworthy event happened where in a situation with one out, runners on 1st and 2nd base and Willson Contreras stepping up to bat, a ground ball to third base was scooped up by Arenado who then waited for Baez, the runner from second advancing to third, to tag him. Bizarrely, Baez, instead of letting Arenado tag him and running off to the dugout, hugged him and proceeded to hold on to him for a few seconds. After the play had transpired, Black walked over to the umpires to argue over a possible interference from Baez to not let Arenado complete the double play by throwing the ball to first base to put catcher Willson Contreras out. Nothing happened as a result and that was the end of it. The unlikeliest of things always happens in October, man. I swear.
The game kept dragging and it was thought that there was going to be no end in this marathon. Well then, Tony Wolters had other plans. In the thirteenth inning, Wolters, a third-string catcher who hit .170 in the regular season, hit the go-ahead RBI single on a 1-2 changeup to advance Trevor Story home. The second lead Colorado attained was something they’d never surrender again, and after striking out the last three batters in the bottom half of the same inning, the Rockies’ players and staff began to celebrate on the baseball diamond, thus ending the elimination game. Finally, after 9 years, Rocktober will return in Coors Field.
The Rockies will play against the Brewers on Thursday in Game 1 of the NLDS in Miller Park, while the Cubs go home in bitter disappointment.
There’s always next year, Chicago.
