Old school baseball. I love it. This is going to be an amazing series. It is going to be a series that pits the best against the best. It is going to be youth vs experience. The Cardinals seasoned players vs. the Cubs rookies. Mike Matheny, who only has three years managerial experience vs Joe Maddon, who has been managing 22 years and took the Rays to the World Series in 08.
There are two words which are bandied around a lot in baseball these days-- “pitch count.” The idea is to preserve the pitcher’s arm and perhaps extend his career by keeping him to 100 pitches or less. Some managers consider this a hard-and-fast rule, to the point I feel it is damaging and can undermine a pitcher’s confidence. Some managers don’t worry so much about it. And then there are managers like Tony Larussa, who gave himself a bigger bullpen and specialized pitcher to batter, sometimes bringing in a pitcher to face just one batter or throw one pitch. The point is, in the old days a pitcher finished the game no matter how long it took. These days you almost never hear of that, but a very close eye is kept on “pitch count.”
Last night the Cubs won their first playoff game in 12 years. I have only been a Cubs fan for 11 years, so this was the first time I have ever seen the Cubs win a playoff game. Granted, it was a game they shouldn’t have had to play in the first place because they had such a good record that if they had been in any other division they would have won it. Ironically, the teams with the top three best record were all in the National League Central, so the Cubs played their division rivals, the Pittsburgh Pirates, in the National-League Wild Card game. This is a one-game wild-card playoff game, and the winner plays in the National League Division Series. I know… they only started doing this two years ago, and it is confusing. But anyway, by this weird coincidence the Cubs played the Pirates, a team they have played four or five times already this season, the last series being just a couple weeks ago, the second-to-last series for both teams.
It’s been an amazing season for the Cubs. When the Cubs brought in Theo Epstein and started doing all this team revamping and acquiring of young talent I was dubious. After their rather miserable last couple seasons I was pretty sure that if it was going to work, it would take a few years. I was thinking 2016, 2017 they might be contenders. But not this year. Then they signed Jon Lester, one of the most in-demand free agent pitchers on the market, one who could have had his pick of teams, but chose the Cubs because he wanted to help them become playoff contenders. And then they signed Joe Maddon.
Joe Maddon was the manager of the Tampa Bay Rays for quite a few years. The Rays are the team that has the lowest budget in the American League, they had no big-name players and were consistently the cellar-dwellers of the American League East. Joe Maddon came in, made some major changes to the atmosphere in the clubhouse, and the Rays won not only the division, but went on to the World Series. It was amazing. So when the Cubs signed him, I began have a little bit of hope that some positive changes were coming. In a year or two.
I’m not ashamed to admit I was wrong, and I give props to Epstein and Maddon. Maddon took a young, inexperienced bunch of players and helped them form a cohesive, competitive team. Long story short… they won 97 games this year, a great record.
Wednesday was the wild-card playoff, and it was one of the best games I’ve ever seen, in no small part because of Jake Arrieta. I love reading stories of the old baseball greats, but to see a someone who is having a season rivaling (and exceeding) some of the best pitchers in baseball history is absolutely cool and amazing… and he is on my team! Jake Arrieta has gotten consistently better and better as the season has gone on, to the point he is unbeatable, unhittable, and absolutely dominant. The last twenty games of the season he had a .75 era, which is the best in baseball history over a twenty game stretch. Yes, you read that right, the best in baseball history… ever.
He’s the guy the Cubs sent to the mound on Wednesday, and as expected, he dominated the Pirates. The Pirates were unable to capitalize at all, and Arrieta stayed calm even in scary situations like when the bases were loaded due to an error in the sixth… he just stayed calm, kept pitching, and got the double play ball. Inning over. He struck out 11, gave up no walks, 4 hits, and zero runs. He threw 113 pitches through the complete game. As the seventh inning came up we were starting to wonder if they were planning to bring anyone in, but nobody was warming up and Arrieta batted for himself. When he came out in the eighth I began to think the plan was to leave him in for the whole game… and I was right. Maddon had complete confidence in him and Arrieta went the distance. I found out later this was the plan all along. Unless things got really, really bad, Maddon had no plans to pull Arrieta, at all. When asked what Arrieta’s pitch count was, the answer was “infinity.” Old school baseball. The pitcher goes out and finishes what he starts, doesn’t leave his work in the hands of some reliever. Beautiful.
Arrieta later gave credit to Dexter Fowler and his teammates for scoring in the first inning, and I agree, this was big too, to get the momentum on the Cubs side and cool off the (very excited) crowd a little. The Cubs scored three runs early and I am sure this helped bolster Arrieta’s confidence. But seriously, seeing a pitching performance like that… just, wow.
Another cool thing that happened during the game happened in the seventh. Arrieta grazed two of the Pirates batters earlier in the game with pitches that got out of his control-- barely hitting them, clearly unintentional. Then when Arrieta came up to bat with two outs in the top of the seventh the first pitch hit him in the ribcage. The benches and bullpens cleared and players stormed the field. Punches were thrown. Through it all Arrieta remained pretty calm. The game resumed after a few minutes with Arrieta on first and the top of the lineup. The first thing Arrieta did was steal second base. You never see pitchers steal, and it was only the fifth time in post-season play a pitcher has stolen a base.
It made me so happy because that is the way you should respond to a situation like that. Instead of getting revenge by hitting their guy, Arrieta responded through gameplay. It’s like, “Ok, you want to put me on base? I’ll put myself in scoring position!” Maddon never called for any intentional hpb revenge on the Pirates players. They responded by playing the game. That’s class.
The Cubs struck early and hard. The young players stepped up. And Arrieta was given the opportunity to show everyone one of the most dominant post-season pitching performances ever. Afterwards Arrieta gave credit to the Pirates pitcher, Gerrit Cole, saying he is an amazing pitcher and they knew they would have to work hard to beat the Pirates. I love this Cubs team. I love the energy, the class, the talent, and the atmosphere that Maddon brings to the clubhouse. Maddon would say afterwards that their philosophy is to play the same way every single day-- not treating any one game as different or more important than another. He also talks about the importance of having fun and not letting the pressure get to you (HUGE for the Cubs), and he compared Arrieta to Bob Gibson, one of the greatest pitchers of all time. He said pulling Arrieta would have been like pulling Bob Gibson out of a playoff situation. No, he intended to let him go all the way and finish it. As a result, we got to see one of the greatest pitching performances ever, and the Cubs made it look easy beating the second best team in baseball in a playoff game away from home.
At first I was disappointed they had to play in this wild-card playoff game. But I’m not anymore. For the Cubs, it was a good first taste of the playoffs. Now they are going to St. Louis with the experience of having won a playoff game away from home under their belt. They can ride the momentum to hopefully another playoff win away from home. They showed that they are very good and they can get it done. This game was a very big deal, and it could be pivotal to their momentum down the line.
Now they are traveling to St. Louis to play the best team in baseball, who also happens to be the Cubs’ historical division rivals. I know the Cubs too well to be disappointed if they lose. But yesterday showed me what they can do. Also, the Cubs have won 4 of the last 6 games they have played against the Cardinals, and Jon Lester pitches today. If they do win and go on, perhaps to the World Series, I also will no longer be surprised. I have legitimate reason to hope that Joe Maddon’s philosophy about how to play the game, combined with his funny gimmicks, like pj parties and bringing zoo animals to the clubhouse, might actually dispel the unbelievable pressure I have seen the Cubs break under before and allow them to play with all the talent I know they possess. If they can do that, they have a legitimate shot of going all the way.
But win or lose, we are going to see some amazing, old-school baseball this weekend.
I can’t wait.
