In a season mostly defined by frustration and disappointment, with the Chicago Cubs hanging on to the last vestiges of hope for salvaging a chance at meaningful games, they put together a ninth-inning rally against a closer with only two blown saves.
For the second time this season, Mike Tauchman got the final hit for the walk-off, the finishing touch on a 5-4 comeback win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday.
“That was probably one of our better endings of the year,” Tauchman said. “It’s a great feeling. You always want to come through for the team, and we’ve battled a lot of adversity this year, and it’s no secret we’re not where we want to be right now.”
The Cubs have been starved for galvanizing moments like that one all season. The offense has struggled to score most of the year, and timely hits like Tauchman’s have been rare. And in order for moments like his to happen, a lot of other pieces have to come together.
Down 4-2 and facing Ryan Helsley, who is tied with Cleveland Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase for the most saves in baseball (33), Cody Bellinger hit a one-out home run that trimmed the Cubs’ deficit. With one out left, Nico Hoerner singled and stole second, and Dansby Swanson fought back from an 0-2 count to lace a double to left field that tied the game. Hoerner’s stolen base was crucial to creating the scoring opportunity.
“It completely changes the dynamic of the game,” Swanson said. “Just an extra 90 feet obviously leads to my base hit that scores him. You don’t need another hit to then score.”
Down by just a run, with two outs and Hoerner now in scoring position, Swanson saw only sliders in his at-bat against Helsley, hitting the fifth one for the pivotal RBI double.
“Sometimes we overcomplicate it,” Swanson said of his mental approach when down 0-2. “Those moments you just kind of bear down and compete and do whatever you can to help the team win. And in that moment it was obviously to find some green grass in the outfield.”
Now with the game tied 4-4, Tauchman came up cold from the bench as the pinch hitter, and he also had to work back from an 0-2 in the count. Tauchman looked at a slider and then a four-seam fastball, wisely laying off two pitches below the strike zone, and then sent the fifth pitch of the at-bat down the left-field line.
“[Helsley] made two really, really good pitches,” Tauchman said, “and then at that point it’s like, if it’s close, you gotta put a bat on it.”
Mobbed by his teammates at second base after the hit, Tauchman’s shirt was ripped off in a moment that almost resembled David Bote after his walk-off grand slam against the Nationals in August 2018. Tauchman joked in the locker room afterward that between the two walk-offs he’s hit this season, it’s tough to name a favorite.
But one thing has been true both times: his wife, Eileen, has visited the OB-GYN on the same day.
“I’m going to start taking her to the doctor. We’re going to get a lot of appointments in,” Tauchman quipped.
Two days removed from the trade deadline that brought them Isaac Paredes and Nate Pearson — who pitched two scoreless innings of relief Thursday — the Cubs are who they are now, for better or for worse. Team president Jed Hoyer was clear about a week before the trade deadline that he was not going to chase rentals in order to try and make a final push for 2024, but instead that he was going to focus his deals on improving the team for 2025 and beyond.
At the same time, the ‘24 Cubs have felt almost all season long like they are playing below their potential. Fans have been waiting for weeks for a hot stretch, for a string of wins to get them back into serious playoff consideration.
Their current win streak stands at just two, but players like Bellinger (batting .345 in his last seven games) and Suzuki (.316 in his last 15 games) are getting hot. Having hitters producing like that can jump start an offense. New guy Paredes was 0-for-4 against St. Louis, but he hit two doubles and scored three times in Wednesday’s win over the Cincinnati Reds.
If the Cubs are going to make a late push, this is the group that has to do it.
“My feeling is these are our guys for the next two months, and let’s go get ‘em,” manager Craig Counsell said. “Simple as that. That’s what’s great about this time of year to me, is that you cross over to post-deadline and this is our team. Let’s go get ‘em.”
The National League wild card race is tight; after Thursday’s win the Cubs are six games back from the third spot, currently held by the Arizona Diamondbacks. In between them and Arizona are the New York Mets, Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Francisco Giants, and Reds. That’s a lot of teams to leapfrog in the next 50 games, so they’ve got their work cut out for them.
