Pirates beat Cubs in series opener at Wrigley Field

“You sort of get over that addiction”. “Jonny definitely has elevated us this season”. With a win today against the Pirates the Cubs will clinch their first playoff birth in seven years.

Inside their clubhouse at Wrigley Field, Chicago Cubs players can find each day’s schedule on a whiteboard near the door. The two teams last met at PNC Park early last week and the Cubs took three out of four from the Pirates with Lester throwing a one-run complete game in one of those matchups. “I was ready. I think the whole area was ready for the party”.

“We have constraints”, he said.

All throughout the season, Maddon wanted his young Cubs to embrace the pressure of the playoff chase, not to back down from it.

Theo Epstein has been a part of that losing since the 2012 season. That’s the next question to answer for this upstart team, with its first post season appearance under the Ricketts family ownership on the verge of being clinched. Chris Coghlan was also bumped out of his usual 3rd spot home for Kris Bryant. Before we understood what The Maddon Effect would mean beyond Simon the Magician and Warren the Pink Flamingo.

“It has been a great learning curve overall the last two weeks”, veteran Cubs catcher David Ross said. “He learned to adapt to that and that’s why he’s a big-game pitcher”.

Cubs bench coach Dave Martinez, who worked alongside Maddon with the Tampa Bay Rays, said the manager has never reduced his team’s practice time on the field to this extent. In the past, I saw him get better when it mattered. Aramis Ramirez doubled to left to lead off the seventh against Sweaty Jon. Morse’s single broke the tie, and generally was a thorn in the side. With the Twins’ win, the “Stros are in jeopardy of missing the playoffs after spending the majority of the season atop the AL West. Only 1 1/2 games separate the Astros, Twins and Angels for the second wild-card slot”. Against the Cubs on Friday, his go-to pitch checked in at an average of 97.6 miles per hour and topped out at 99.8. They feel they have not accomplished anything yet.

“There’s no better guy to have on the mound than Melancon with runner on third with one out in that situation”, said Pirates manager Clint Hurdle. No played reached base safely more than twice. Honestly, I couldn’t tell whether Montero had a chance to stop the ball or not, but you really have to in situations like that.

Jon Lester had another strong outing. The lefty’s put up a 3.43 ERA, 19 quality starts and nearly 200 innings, plus the confidence and credibility that can’t be measured in a rebuilding situation. We need to force the defense to play. “Look at Kansas City past year”. “It was good to get one in the ninth off of (Mark) Melancon”. “Fastball played big time….”