CHICAGO – After the Cubs uncorked the bottles of champagne in Pittsburgh during their last road trip – celebrating clinching the franchiseâ€s first postseason berth in five years – the ballclub began to turn its attention to the next goal. The team wanted to bring October baseball back to Wrigley Field.
On Saturday afternoon, Michael Busch belted two homers to help make that happen via a 7-3 victory over the rival Cardinals at the Friendly Confines. With the win, the Cubs averted a cross-country flight to San Diego, instead earning the right to host the best-of-three National League Wild Card Series, beginning on Tuesday.
“Being able to give these fans October baseball, thatâ€s going to be real special,†Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong said this week. “We know how to play ball here. We love embracing everything that comes with this place.â€
The win helped the Cubs (91-70) increase their cushion over the Padres (88-72) to 2 1/2 games for the NLâ€s top Wild Card spot with only one game left in the regular-season slate. Chicago also hosted a Wild Card Series in 2020, but with no fans in attendance. The last packed house at Wrigley for a playoff game was in ‘18, when the Cubs took on the Rockies in the Wild Card Game.
Busch powered the North Siders to the win column with the third multihomer performance of his career, launching home runs Nos. 33 and 34 on the year. The Cubs†first baseman slugged a leadoff shot off Cardinals righty Michael McGreevy in the first inning and added a two-run blast off the starter in the fifth.
Busch also doubled into the left-center-field gap in the third inning and knocked in a run with a triple deep into the right-center-field gap in the seventh. In total, he finished a single short of a cycle and with 13 total bases. Busch became the first player in Cubs history to have a pair of games with at least 13 total bases in the same season. He also had 13 in his three-homer outburst against the Cardinals on July 4.
Per MLB.comâ€s Sarah Langs, Buschâ€s performance marked only the 30th individual game in the Majors with a double, a triple and two home runs in the past 125 seasons. To put that into perspective, there have been 306 cycles in that same span.
In the eighth inning, the Cardinals intentionally walked Busch – denying him the opportunity to hit for a cycle – bringing on a loud chorus of boos from the Wrigley faithful.
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