CINCINNATI — The Cubs are one victory away from back-to-back playoff berths, a common occurrence for some franchises but an infrequent achievement for the 150-year-old franchise with three World Series titles.
All they need to do is win Tuesday, when they return to Wrigley Field to face the Marlins, a ballclub that, like several others, has ruined celebration plans before. Fans of certain ages will recall the 1969 Mets, 1984 Padres and 2003 Marlins, who brought heartbreak to the North Side.
The 2016 World Series brought joy to Wrigleyville, but it was expected to bring more, as in more World Series titles. That era did bring four consecutive playoff berths, including three straight trips to the National League Championship Series. It marked only the third set of consecutive postseason appearances in franchise history.
A fourth set is all but clinched, but it could’ve happened Sunday. The Cubs entered the day needing a victory against the Reds and a Diamondbacks loss to the Yankees to clinch a wild-card berth. If they won, the Cubs planned to stay in the visitors’ clubhouse at Great American Ball Park and watch the D-backs, whose game started just as the Cubs’ game ended.
The Cubs held up their end, winning 9-1. David Peterson threw six innings of one-run ball, and Pete Crow-Armstrong hit his 45th home run and stole his 38th base. But they changed their plans, perhaps in light of Alex Bregman’s injury. The Cubs sent him to the hospital after a foul ball off Michael Busch’s bat bloodied his face.
The D-backs ended up winning, so the Cubs’ departure was for the best. It would’ve been quite a waste of time to sit in Great American Ball Park’s visitors’ clubhouse — which still had damp carpeting and reeked of beer and champagne from the Dodgers’ celebration of their 13th NL West crown in 14 years — for another few hours.
On Tuesday, the Cubs won’t need anyone’s help, though that might come in handy the rest of the week as they try to secure home-field advantage in the wild-card round. With six games left, the Cubs are tied with the Padres for the first wild-card spot but hold the tiebreaker. The Phillies are third, and the Cubs own that tiebreaker, as well.
But this Cubs team wasn’t put together — and manager Craig Counsell wasn’t brought in — to win wild-card berths. For the third consecutive season, the Cubs will finish in second place in the Central behind the Brewers, from whom they lured Counsell to work his small-market magic at the big-market level.
It hasn’t gone according to plan because the guy who was Counsell’s bench coach with the Brewers, Pat Murphy, might be getting more out of that club than Counsell did, at least in the regular season. Of course, neither has gotten past the NLCS. But until Counsell and the Cubs pass the Brewers, Murphy’s specter will hover over them.
Maybe having the best player in baseball will make the difference this year. Pete Crow-Armstrong is likely to be the NL MVP, and the Cubs will need him to play like one. Last season, he did not, batting .185 with no homers and one stolen base in eight games. He even got caught stealing once.
The fact that he went 0-for-10 in the first two games of the weekend series against the Reds in a hitter-friendly venue was astonishing. He snapped that “skid” Sunday, going 3-for-5 with three runs, a double, a homer and two RBI.
“Every player is begging for a two-game slump,” Counsell said. “You may get him a day or two, but it’s coming.”
And with one more victory, the Cubs are coming, too, and they say they’re coming for everything. But they will need everything to click, from their major-league-best offense and defense to their still-undecided pitching staff. It’s a different game in the postseason, which this franchise knows all too well — just not often enough from its own experience.