PITTSBURGH — Champagne was flying in spurts around the visiting clubhouse at PNC Park as Cubs players, coaches and support staff doused each other in celebration. There were sneak attacks and frontal assaults.
An already soaked Ian Happ opened his arms to embrace a stream of bubbly. Pete Crow-Armstrong returned a two-handed overhead pour. Dansby Swanson shook his hair and sent droplets through the air. Daniel Palencia wrapped a “W” flag around his shoulders like a cape. Matthew Boyd and Justin Turner huddled in a plastic-covered corner to light cigars, and pretty soon fresh stogies were circulating the room and filling it with a slight haze.
Just when the commotion seemed to be dying down, someone shouted, “We’ve got more!” to raucous cheers. Two more cases of champagne appeared in the center of the room.
“It’s important to feel this,” Happ said, wiping champagne from his face. “It’s important to feel what you’ve worked for. The guys that have done it, the guys who have seen it, you know what you’re working toward, you know your goal. And so for all the young guys that get to experience this and do it, it means more.”
The Cubs clinched a postseason berth with an 8-4 victory against the Pirates on Wednesday, sweeping the three-game series to end a four-year playoff drought. But it had been even longer since the Cubs had celebrated a trip to the playoffs with full-blown champagne showers.
When they last clinched a postseason berth, in 2020, they were under COVID-19 restrictions. And in 2018, they opted for a more simple toast. They had planned to save the big hurrah for when they clinched the division, but then they fell to the wild card.
So, as the team stood encircled by plastic-covered lockers, bottles waiting to be popped, Happ was the only player who had been around the last time the Cubs were in that formation. He was a natural choice to address the team.
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REPOST IF YOU’RE READY FOR OCTOBER BASEBALL pic.twitter.com/xJ91AgXnf2
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) September 17, 2025
“[Happ] said the last time he got to celebrate this was 2017,” Boyd said. “And when you’re in it, you think it’s going to happen every year. And the reality is, this is really hard to do. You could hear the emotion in his voice, and how much this means to him. It means so much to all of us.
“And we’re not done yet.”
That sentiment echoed around the room. The Cubs have loftier goals than simply making the playoffs. They want a deep run, a World Series title.
“Hopefully, it’s just the start,” Nico Hoerner said. “But it’s still a huge milestone along the way. And what an awesome group to share it with.”
Four and a half years ago, the Cubs dismantled their last championship core. This was their first postseason berth with the reimagined group that rose from that teardown, and first with president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer in charge after he had stood by Theo Epstein’s side for the last run.
The road to get there had its false hopes and dashed expectations, close calls and shocking twists. It still took two seasons of below-.500 baseball, a near-miss in 2023 and a seven-week slump in 2024 that the team never quite got over.
Champagne showers 🍾 pic.twitter.com/fihmR4mcxb
— Maddie Lee (@maddie_m_lee) September 17, 2025
This year, the Cubs had one of the best scoring offenses in the majors in the first half of the season. And though they cooled off after the All-Star break, they still entered Wednesday with the fourth-best record in the majors, buoyed by their second-half pitching.
“All the pictures in my office are of moments like this,” Hoyer said, “with the guys in the office, with the players, with the coaching staff. It’s why you do this. It’s why you work as hard as you do, it’s why you prepare, so you can celebrate with these guys. You hope to celebrate as many times as you can in any given year. But it never gets old.”
So even with goals to still achieve in the regular season — the division race still hasn’t been officially decided, and the Cubs will win home-field advantage if they can at least hold on to the top National League wild-card spot — they embraced this celebration with gusto.
“I didn’t think I’d be so cold,” said a shirtless Crow-Armstrong, his teeth chattering behind a grin as he stood in champagne-soaked socks. “My feet are cold, and it’s making my upper body cold.
“But I pictured this . . . I was just picturing being able to give everybody a hug and let them know I appreciate them.”
The Cubs claimed the victory with a late offensive push against the Pirates’ bullpen. With two outs in the ninth inning, and the Pirates’ Oneil Cruz battling with a full count, a “Let’s go, Cubs” chant rose from the visiting fans.
Cruz poked a routine fly ball the other way, and Happ squeezed his glove for the postseason-clinching out.
“When the ball went up to left field, I was happy it went to him,” manager Craig Counsell said. “No question about it.”
