NEWSLETTER
It came down to Wade Davis and Bryce Harper. Two outs, bottom of the 9th, Nationals down one. That’s how you script it. And that’s how it actually played out.
In this story, Davis got the best of Harper, striking him out to move the Cubs on to their third straight National League Championship Series.
And what a freaking ridiculous, crazy, stressful-as-it-gets game that was. It’s only fitting that it ended after midnight here in the east – Friday, the 13th.
The Cubs went down big early after Michael Taylor did it again, ripping a three-run homer off of a shaky Kyle Hendricks for a 4-1 lead.
The Cubs got their first two runs on groundouts (productive outs or something!), and then their third on a wild pitch. But, incredibly, the Cubs took the lead in the fifth inning off of Max Scherzer, who cruised against Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo and then …
Whew. At the end of that nutso inning, the Cubs were up 7-4, and they never lost the lead from there. Which is not to say it wasn’t insanely tense. The Cubs got another gift run the next inning when Jayson Werth flat missed a ball, but the Nationals added runs in the 6th, 7th, and (of course) 8th to get to within a run. That last one came off of Wade Davis, who was summoned in the 7th inning to finish things off. It felt like a lot to ask of him, but after 44 pitches (of not his best), he got the job done.
There’s actually waaaaaay more from that one than I can reasonably get into tonight, so I’ll leave you with this …
Just like that, the new Cubs postseason gear is out at the MLB Shop! https://t.co/F9lyQZrSoT pic.twitter.com/FM4sVkgbew
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) October 13, 2017
