As I tried, and often failed, to stay grounded during the Cubs’ three weeks of misery, I want to stay there as best I can today.
The 15 hits today by the Cubs were borderline incredible, even if they didn’t convert as many into runs as you would have liked to have seen. The bullpen came through, and John Lackey did enough to keep things from getting out of hand (and he probably pitched better than his final ER total shows). In this stretch, I will so take all of that.
The Cubs held on to win, which they haven’t done much lately, and now can head into the All-Star break breathing at least a tiny sigh of relief.
The game was an agonizingly back-and-forth affair, of the kind you’d be on the edge of your seat if the Cubs were in a better stretch of baseball. As it is, the game was watched between your fingers, sitting back in your seat, knowing that horror laid just beyond the next corner. It’s nice to know that, yes, it’s still possible for the horrifying games to end in a ‘W’ for the Cubs.[adinserter block=”1″][adinserter block=”10″]
There were plenty of mistakes in this one, but I don’t want to dig into them too deeply today. I just want to enjoy this. A win. Finally. A win over a divisional competitor, one that could have stood just 5.5 games back had the outcome been different. As it stands, they are now 7.5 games back, and that’s great.
You know what? Forget staying grounded. Go celebrate like the Cubs just won the damn NLDS. As we’ve just been reminded: opportunities for joy in this game can sometimes be few and far between.
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