Are the Chicago Cubs Elimanted or Do They Play Again
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For the Cubs, the Playoffs Aren't Good Enough Anymore
CHICAGO — The Chicago Cubs started their renaissance with a wild-card game. That was three years ago, in Pittsburgh, and their fans were thrilled. It had been a dozen years since the franchise'south last playoff victory, and a new group was making its mark.
A year later on, in 2016, the Cubs stormed to their kickoff World Series title in 108 years. The expectations changed. Anthony Rizzo, the Cubs' commencement baseman, sensed that this yr's wild carte felt like a consolation prize around town.
"We had a chance to win the division and nosotros didn't," Rizzo said. "But we've really flipped this civilisation here in the Chicago Cubs arrangement to being winners. We fell brusque this year."
In doing so, at least, they put on a eye-pounding show. The Colorado Rockies eliminated the Cubs on Tuesday, two-1, in xiii taut innings at Wrigley Field, whose bricks and ivy had never witnessed such a long postseason game.
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The Cubs fought difficult for nearly v hours. Their pitchers wedged 11 shutout innings betwixt Colorado's starting time and last runs. Four outs from defeat in the eighth, Javier Baez doubled home the pinch-runner Terrance Gore, exhorting the crowd and his teammates.
"I felt like we wouldn't lose that game after Javy got that base hit," said starter Jon Lester, who worked half-dozen strong innings. "For whatsoever reason, nosotros did. Possibly in the long run, this will be good for us. You can only learn from losing."
Maybe, but what lessons can the Cubs really take from a flavour so baroque? When they won, they looked overpowering. The averaged 6.5 runs in their victories, comparable to the Boston Carmine Sox, who had the majors' best record and averaged half-dozen.7.
Yet on as well many nights, the Cubs seemed allergic to the plate. They scored one or no runs 39 times in the regular season, tied with the Baltimore Orioles for the most such games in the majors.
The Orioles were 47-115. The Cubs, meanwhile, reached the terminate of their original schedule tied with the Milwaukee Brewers for the near wins in the National League, with 95. Only the Brewers won the Central division tiebreaker on Monday at Wrigley, 3-1, and now the Cubs are finished.
"Two games in a row and the other team celebrated on our field," 3rd baseman Kris Bryant said. "That makes it a lot tougher, watching them."
Bryant, the league'south nigh valuable thespian in that dreamy 2016 flavour, played simply 102 games this year because of shoulder injuries. He struck out three times on Tuesday, going 1 for 6. The Cubs had 6 hits over all and fanned 16 times, going one for 6 with runners in scoring position.
That was a chronic problem for these Cubs. They ranked third in the majors in plate appearances with runners in scoring position this flavour, yet hit just .247 in those spots, ranking 20th. The trend continued in their ane-night postseason.
"Yep, nosotros played that game a lot," Managing director Joe Maddon said. "Believe me, it was on my mind for a large part of it. We had some opportunities, nosotros just could not cash in. They pitched really well, too, merely we need to figure that out in the off-flavour, next spring training."
The Cubs accept 387 wins in four seasons under Maddon, who is inbound the last year of his contract. Theo Epstein, the Cubs' president of baseball operations, said on Wed that he was "very happy" that Maddon was the managing director, though he has not focused on the possibility of a contract extension.
"Nosotros take a terrific working relationship," Epstein said. "We don't agree all the fourth dimension on baseball problems, and that's the way information technology should exist. I don't want a yeah human as the director and I don't want a yes man the other way, either. There should be discord and debate and a healthy trusting relationship where we can work together to make the organization better."
Maddon got little help this season from the Cubs' splashy off-flavor moves. The team signed pitchers Yu Darvish, Tyler Chatwood and Brandon Morrow for a combined $185 million, enticed by their hard, sharply moving repertories. However all were inactive on Tuesday, felled past injuries, underperformance or both.
Other moves worked, like the signing of reliever Steve Cishek final winter and the summer trades for Cole Hamels, Daniel Murphy, Jesse Chavez and Jorge De La Rosa. But besides a brief uptick subsequently Tater'due south arrival in August, the Cubs simply could not generate consistent offense from a lineup of stars.
"We would beloved to get out at that place and hit amend with runners in scoring position, square the ball upwardly more, just we just didn't do that," Bryant said. "Information technology's frustrating. I don't have an answer to it. It's making me more motivated to effigy it out."
The Cubs had e'er advanced in the postseason under Maddon, framing their 2016 championship betwixt two losses in the North.L. Championship Series. This sudden exit, Lester said, might exist the equivalent of getting "knocked in the dirt in lodge to appreciate where you're at. Maybe we needed that. Maybe we needed to go knocked down a peg or two and realize naught's going to exist given to us."
The Brewers swiped the Cubs' division title, and the Rockies snagged their spot in the division series, which starts in Milwaukee on Thursday. The Cubs should exist dorsum soon — they retain control of almost all their cadre players, and now have an unexpected four weeks in October to rest.
They also accept more fourth dimension to reflect. Outfielder Albert Almora Jr., who struck out against Scott Oberg to end Tuesday'southward game, said the flavour was "non a success unless we win," echoing the cold calculus of the early-2000s Yankees.
Those Yankees, though, were trying to maintain a tradition unrivaled in their sport and demanded by their irrational owner, George Steinbrenner. These Cubs know what they will miss by losing on Tuesday, only they understand where they came from.
"Afterward we won in 2016, it was kind of 'World Serial or bust' attitude," Bryant said. "That'due south the right attitude to have. Yous play to be the last team standing; you don't just play to make the playoffs. Nosotros've built the culture up here — nosotros are some of the best Chicago Cubs teams they've e'er fielded, and we take that and we're pretty proud of that."
The Cubs, in that manner, accept earned a foreign viewpoint in defeat: They can hang their heads high.
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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/03/sports/chicago-cubs-wild-card.html
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