Cubs Comeback In 9th To Win NLDS
I was ready to jump out of a window t-minus one hour ago. Granted, I live on the 3rd story of my building so it probably would’ve been a couple of broken legs and maybe a sprained wrist but realistically I needed to take a plunge. Just couldn’t believe some of the shit I was seeing from this lineup tonight.
Matt Moore ate the Cubs‘ lunch innings 1-8. No question about it. He mixed his cutter in the zone early, used his changeup effectively, and then time and time again he went to the knuckle curve with 2 strikes. And quite frankly, his breaking ball was as sharp as any shit I’ve seen this season including Mr. Kershaw. Simply put, Matt Moore was as effective as you can possibly be against this team. He jumped ahead in the count with good stuff IN THE ZONE, but then backed it up with plus-plus stuff OUTSIDE the zone. That’s virtually impossible to beat when your lineup is predicated on getting ahead and then driving the shit out of mistakes. It would have taken a lineup like the Giants (balanced, simple, middle-other-way) to effectively compete against Matt Moore tonight. And instead, we just got our asses handed to us every step of the way because sometimes that’s just how baseball works.
That is of course until you remember that this team comes back. It’s really that simple. This Cubs team is incapable of getting blown out. They’ll always find a way to make things interesting, and tonight they capitalized on serious mistakes from the Giants’ bullpen in the 9th down 5-2.
From bringing in a rookie reliever to serve up a meat 1-1 breaking ball to Bryant to start things off with a single…
To then leveraging a lefty-lefty matchup on Rizzo only to walk him on a 3-2 count…
To bringing in veteran poo-slinger Sergio Romo (that’s an actual baseball phrase btw… that fucker’s slingin’ poo = throwing off speed garbage) to face a bonafide poo slinging specialist Ben Zobrist…
To getting out-managed by Joe when the Giants brought in a lefty to face Coghlan, only to have Joe go right to rookie Wilson Contreras for the right on left match-up…
To Brandon Crawford not being able to turn a routine double play on Hayward’s god awful sac bunt right back to the pitcher and instead throwing it into the 1st base dugout thus advancing Heyward to scoring position….
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To then pitching to Javy Baez (who has been on absolute tear this series) in a tie game with the lead run on second and first base open while David Ross waited on deck. Literally every single one of those decisions is a head scratcher.
But at the end of the day, it’s the Cubs that took advantage of the opportunities they created for themselves. Yes, Matt Moore shoved. And yes, John Lackey did not shove. But there are 9 innings in a baseball game for a reason and we got to witness it first hand. Largest 9th inning comeback IN THE HISTORY OF PLAYOFF BASEBALL. That’s some impressive shit, and it’s worth your pride. Your intense, passionate, unbridled pride. That’s what makes this team so special and why it’s becoming more and more clear that this is a team slated for destiny.
So with that said, enjoy the next few days off. We’ll have previews and coverage out in the coming days breaking down our impending match ups. For now, indulge in whatever your vice of choice is. Playoff series wins are hard to come by on the north side of Chicago, and I demand that you celebrate appropriately.
Finally, if you’re not following me on twitter, I highly suggest you start now. Tonight’s banter was A+++ stuff across the board, and stoolies couldn’t be any better to go through all of this with. Here are tonight’s top tweets:
Follow @barstoolcarl
Javy hit .771 senior year in case you didn’t know
^^re: Matt Moore’s eyebrows ^^
and finally: