Just when the Chicago Cubs have seemed to be getting ready to watching their postseason aspirations spiral away, they arrive by way of.
That’s how good groups carry out, and the Cubs have proven a knack for shifting previous a tricky couple of video games, staying locked in and sustaining their maintain on a playoff spot. They bounced again following a pair walk-off losses final weekend in Cincinnati to win the collection finale, main right into a sweep of the San Francisco Giants, and after dropping three consecutive video games to the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Cubs took care of enterprise in Sunday’s 5-2 win.
“I feel like we’ve been honestly grinding away at it the last couple days and just nothing really to show for it,” shortstop Dansby Swanson stated. “Once again, it’s just one of those things we’ve got to stay the course and continue to prepare and go out there and obviously compete.”
Three solo residence runs within the third inning — Christopher Morel, and back-to-back homers by Cody Bellinger and Swanson — helped the Cubs (77-67) construct a 4-0 lead in a bullpen sport for Arizona.
The win put the Cubs two video games forward of the Diamondbacks for the second National League wild-card spot. It additionally nonetheless provides them an opportunity to safe the season head-to-head tiebreaker if the Cubs sweep them in Arizona subsequent weekend.
Over their final 17 video games, the Cubs rotation owns the bottom ERA within the majors (2.14).
“When two teams line up with similar records, it’s going to be tough and the little detail here and there is going to push it the other way,” supervisor David Ross stated. “This group’s overcome a lot of adversity, have had a lot of challenges. They’ve had a lot of narratives about them and all they do is continue to go out and play baseball really hard and put up W’s.”
Sunday’s victory embodied the all-around play that has gotten the Cubs up to now, led by their pitching employees and protection. Kyle Hendricks held Arizona to 2 runs in 5 2/3 innings and began the sport by retiring 10 of the primary 11 batters he confronted.
Ian Happ’s protection in left subject through the fifth prevented Arizona from getting again into the sport. With two runners on and no one out and a run already in, Happ made a sliding pop-up catch and fired the ball to second base to catch Emmanuel Rivera off the bag for a double play.
“I’ve got to remind some of these guys, they haven’t seen me playing field the big leagues, I did it, not only second, third, but also played first for (Anthony Rizzo) a couple of times, you know?” Happ stated with a smirk. “You don’t lose that, some of those little things you’ve done your whole life. So it’s nice when you can show it off a little bit.”
Hendricks bought out of it one batter later, ending the inning on a Corbin Carroll come out.
“That was a big inning-ender for their momentum,” Ross stated.
Everything the Cubs need to accomplish stays in entrance of them. Three video games at Coors Field, preceded by the rookie road trip dress-up tradition, and three last video games in opposition to the Diamondbacks set the Cubs up for his or her last homestand.
“We control our own destiny,” Happ stated. “We played really good baseball for a long time. We were bound to lose a series there at some point. Four-game sets are tough. They’re a good team. They pitched really well. We hit some balls hard and didn’t have a ton of luck, but to win today was big.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com