WRIGLEY FIELD — The Chicago Cubs are heading back to the postseason for the first time in five years.
With a 8-4 win to sweep the Pittsburgh Pirates on the road Wednesday, the Cubs, led by a fiery young star and some key additions around him, clinched a Wild Card spot in the National League playoffs.
As things stand, the Cubs will host the San Diego Padres at Wrigley Field for a best-of-three playoff series Sept. 30-Oct. 2.
The winner would likely play the league-best Milwaukee Brewers, who passed the Cubs in the National League Central in August amid a franchise-record 14-game win streak.
While their rivals have soared, the Cubs have lumbered to a 31-25 record since the All-Star break after months atop the division.
Hot hitting to start the season had turned the team into an early odds-on World Series favorite, while colorful centerfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong exploded into the MVP race.
Maybe good karma was in the air this season after fans paid for superfan “Bleacher Jeff” Gorski to attend the Cubs’ season-opener in Japan, a goose was given space to hang in an outfield planter box and Crow-Armstrong left a generous tip at the lemonade stand of a Wrigleyville kid who, like his favorite player, wanted to dye his hair with blue stars.
The bats have slumped since the hot start, but the starting pitching remains an unlikely bright spot for the team that lost ace Justin Steele to a season-ending surgery. Journeyman pitcher Matthew Boyd was a first-time All-Star, Shota Imanaga found his groove and Cade Horton has a shot at winning National League Rookie of the Year.
The bullpen, a blight on the team in recent years, has held up. The hard-throwing Daniel Palencia, who takes the mound to Daddy Yankee’s “Gasolina,” has become the Cubs’ clear-cut closer and is expected to be back from the injured list in time for the playoffs.
And the Cubs certainly have the talent up-and-down the batting order for the hitting to roar back. Star outfielder Kyle Tucker, who was benched last month amid a deep funk, is rehabbing from a calf strain with hopes of getting back in the lineup before the playoffs.
The team is wearing jersey patches honoring Hall of Fame second basemen Ryne Sandberg, who died in July from prostate cancer.
“These Cubs aren’t giving up, and neither would he,” said fan Deneen Leone, who joined hundreds of others outside Wrigley Field last month to watch Sandberg’s funeral service.
After a year away, Cubs superfan Ronnie Woo Woo made a triumphant return to Wrigley this month, with the help of nurses who are treating him for lung disease.
“The Cubs are playing good ball,” Woo Woo said. “We’ll see another World Series. They’re in it to win it.”
World Series champion Anthony Rizzo hung out in the bleachers Saturday after signing a ceremonial one-day contract to retire as a Cub. He dropped a home run ball miraculously hit right to him.
“They have a legitimate chance in October,” Rizzo, now a team ambassador, told Marquee Sports about his Cubs.
The Cubs missed the playoffs by a painstaking one game last season in manager Craig Counsell’s first season. The team’s last postseason appearance was in the shortened 2020 season, when the Miami Marlins knocked them out of the Wild Card round in two straight games.
Rizzo famously caught the last out when the Cubs closed out the 2016 World Series, ending a 108-year championship drought and the Curse of the Billy Goat.
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