MILWAUKEE — Ian Happ’s game-tying homer towered over American Family Field in the top of the ninth inning Friday night, reviving the Cubs’ hopes for a comeback, not only in the game but also in the wild-card standings.
Then, just as quickly, those hopes fell. In a 4-3 extra-innings loss, the Cubs squandered a bases-loaded opportunity in the 10th before the Brewers’ Carlos Santana doubled into left field, scoring Blake Perkins for the walk-off victory.
The Cubs dropped to 1½ games behind the Marlins for the final National League wild-card spot, teetering on the verge of elimination with a “tragic number’’ of one.
“Even during this stretch, we’ve been fighting,” shortstop Dansby Swanson said. “Just haven’t been able to come up in the big moments. It’s obviously frustrating. Nobody wants it more than us. Been tough for sure.”
Even though the Cubs have been playing meaningful games since before the All-Star break, infamously pulling themselves from 10 games under .500 to 12, one after another pushed back on the notion that their September swoon came down to running out of gas.
“This is something they’ve worked really hard for,” manager David Ross said. “To see it slipping a little bit – maybe a little bit tighter, but I don’t think anybody’s on fumes.
If they’re not running out of gas, they are running out of plenty of other things. Time. Chances. Clinch scenarios.
The Marlins pulled off a 4-3 win of their own against the Pirates earlier in the evening in Pittsburgh. That was after a long rain delay in New York on Thursday pushed their travel schedule to late that night.
So, now to make the playoffs the Cubs need to win their last two games of the season. They need the Marlins to lose their last three – including their rain-suspended contest against the Mets. They need the Reds to lose at least one.
That equation would have had more wiggle room if the Cubs had capitalized on Friday, against a playoff-bound Brewers team that was resting its best pitchers.
“This last little bit, I need to play better, come through in bigger moments, and just haven’t,” said Swanson, who went 0-for-4. “So, frustrating. Especially being in every game against good teams and really grinding our way but just not making it happen.”
The Cubs didn’t score until the eighth inning Friday, finally showing signs of life with a solo homer from Jeimer Candelario. Next up, Christopher Morel hit a line drive into the left-field corner. In a bizarre moment, the Brewers showed no urgency getting the ball in from the outfield, and Morel made it to third. He scored on Yan Gomes’ groundout, cutting the Cubs’ deficit to one run.
The next inning, Happ jumped on a hung curveball first pitch and tied the game. Then, Swanson put on a defensive clinic, playing a part in all three outs in a scoreless ninth. He fielded a ground ball up the middle and made a throw on the run as he crossed second for a double play. Then he corralled a comebacker that reliever Jose Cuas deflected and threw across his body to send the game into extras.
To load the bases, with the help of the free extra-innings runner, Morel worked a seven-pitch walk and stole second, inspiring Mike Tauchman’s intentional walk. But they were all stranded there. The Brewers, on the other hand, needed just one batter in the bottom of the 10th to put the game away.
Now, the Cubs have to face the reality that no matter how hard they fight Saturday, they could still watch their playoff hopes evaporate.
“We have a group that hasn’t quit all year,” Happ said. “It’s not going to happen tomorrow.
