The Cubs and the Mets had a lot to play for as they filed into their respective dugouts before the game Wednesday at Wrigley Field.
“This is a great week for a baseball fan, it really is,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said before the Cubs’ 10-3 win. “Three weeks in the schedule left, you were like, ‘I don’t know how this is going to end.’ And now you’re like, ‘Wow.’ ”
Entering play Wednesday, only two division races had been decided, the National League Central (Brewers) and NL East (Phillies). The wild-card races were tight in both leagues.
In the NL, only one spot was up for grabs, with the Mets, Diamondbacks and Reds all within one game of one another.
Though the Cubs were guaranteed a wild-card spot, they were still fighting for home-field advantage for the best-of-three series, likely against the Padres.
The Padres, who sit in the second NL wild-card spot behind the Cubs, lost 3-1 to the Brewers on Wednesday. So the Cubs’ win put a 2½-game gap between the teams with four games left on the Cubs’ schedule.
They trimmed their magic number for claiming the top NL wild-card spot to two.
The Cubs have long set their sights higher than simply making the playoffs. Even in Counsell’s speech last week when the Cubs clinched a postseason berth, he stressed the next goal: winning home-field advantage.
“Playing here for visiting teams is tough for a number of reasons,” center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong said. “It’s super fun for us. But being able to give these fans October baseball, that’s going to be real special.”
The Cubs’ win also snapped a five-game losing streak, their longest of the season.
“You’ve got to do a lot of things well to win a game,” Counsell said before the game. “We just haven’t done enough well the last five days. We had some good performances against us, and then we ourselves have not done enough well.”
The Cubs did a lot well on Wednesday.
The offense provided an early lead in the third inning. The Cubs scored five times with three singles, two doubles, a walk and a sacrifice fly. They continued to tack on, with efforts including homers from Matt Shaw, who had a three-hit night, and Michael Busch, who also recorded a double and a walk.
“The last two nights, really, has been awesome for us to get back on track,” Shaw said. “Up and down the lineup, taking really good swings and putting up a ton of runs back-to-back games, after going through a little tough stretch in Cincinnati, it’s super important for us.”
The Cubs took calculated risks on the bases. In the fifth, speedy Crow-Armstrong ran from second to third when Mets reliever Clay Holmes bounced a wild pitch past catcher Francisco Alvarez. But no one moved toward home plate, so Crow-Armstrong touched third base and turned on the burners to score as the Mets scrambled.
Cubs starting pitcher Matthew Boyd set the tone in his last start of the regular season, limiting the Mets to two hits and two runs in 5⅓ innings. It was his 31st start of the season, a mark he hasn’t hit since 2019 because of a series of injuries.
“I have a ton of gratitude,” Boyd said. “To get to be a Chicago Cub, that they gave me a chance to get to do this this year, that they believed in me after only 39 innings last year. And I feel like having my best year in the big leagues. It’s not done, but I’m just overwhelmed with gratitude.”