Home for the playoffs? Cubs gain more ground with sweep of Giants
Everyone's been raving about the atmosphere at Wrigley Field lately. The Cubs have the ability to do something about it.
They completed a three-game sweep of the San Francisco Giants with an 8-2 win Wednesday behind another solid outing from rookie pitcher Jordan Wicks. He worked into the seventh inning to become the first Cubs pitcher since 1901 to record victories in his first three major league starts.
Wicks' first two outings were in Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, so this was his Wrigley Field debut.
"It was a different animal for sure," Wicks said. "I thought it was an awesome crowd. The energy in this place, it's crazy because even if there's a few less people, it doesn't sound like it, ever."
The Cubs never trailed after the scorching hot Seiya Suzuki smacked a 3-run double to right-center field in the first inning. In the last four games, Suzuki has gone 10-for-18 at the plate with 4 doubles, 2 home runs and 9 RBI.
"This series has been as impressive as I've seen of him, because he's faced sidearm righties, sidearm lefties, guys throwing hard, guys throwing a lot of sliders," manager David Ross said. "He's just in every at-bat putting barrels on the baseball."
While all this was going on, first-place Milwaukee took a 3-0 lead in Pittsburgh, but ended up losing to the Pirates. So the Cubs closed within 1½ games of both the Brewers for the NL Central lead and Philadelphia for the top wild-card spot. If the Cubs can catch either team, they could play at home for the first round of the playoffs. In the new wild card format, the higher-seeded team hosts all three games.
"I think our goal was to win the division the whole time," Mike Tauchman said. "We know what the standings are and obviously, the club in front of us is really good. We have 20-something games left and we finish up with them, so it's going to come right down to the wire. But I think as long as we have an opportunity to win the division, that's the goal."
The Cubs finish the regular season with three games in Milwaukee, which could settle the NL Central title. Next up on the schedule is another wild-card contender, Arizona, for four games at Wrigley this weekend.
"It's kind of been our goal since Day 1 (to host playoff games)," said Cody Bellinger, who hit his 24th home run in the seventh inning. "It was our goal in spring training when it felt like we had the group to do it. Even when things weren't really going our way, we still believed in the group and this is the type of baseball we wanted to play and kind of expected to play."
In three starts, Wicks has an ERA of 2.16. He and Javier Assad, two homegrown pitchers, have been exactly what the Cubs needed to make a push in September.
"I don't really think about the personal success," Wicks said. "I'm not satisfied until we're in the playoffs. That's the ultimate goal. That's my goal. I can't just soak in this one and forget about the next couple, all these games are big for us."
There were two more major league debuts in this game. Alexander Canario pinch hit in the eighth inning and struck out against Giants closer Camilo Doval. After working a 3-1 count Canario fanned on a pair of cutters at the top of the zone measured at 98 and 97 miles per hour, so he'll have easier at-bats in the future.
Six-foot-8 left-hander Luke Little pitched the ninth inning and struck out two in his debut.
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