The Chicago Cubs are back in the postseason.
The North Siders punched their ticket Thursday afternoon at Wrigley Field with a 2-1 win over the Miami Marlins to clinch a playoff spot.
It took a little bit longer than many expected, as the Cubs dropped each of the first two games of the series against the Marlins at Wrigley Field despite some chances to win. But they turned things around Thursday behind a stellar performance from Matthew Boyd (7 innings, 1 run), a homer by Seiya Suzuki and an RBI single from Nico Hoerner.
For the second straight year, the Cubs will be playing in a best-of-three National League Wild Card Series — though the opponent and the venue are still to be determined over the final few days of the season.
The win Thursday gave the Cubs 88 victories on the season — not enough for the NL Central crown (as the Milwaukee Brewers have coasted to a fourth straight division title), but enough for a chance to play beyond Sunday.
It’s the first time the Cubs have made the postseason in back-to-back years since 2017-18.
[Alex Bregman injury update: Cubs receive good news on star 3B]
All seasons take their own unique shape, but the Cubs have had a particularly windy path back to the playoffs this year.
It all began in early April when frontline starter Cade Horton left his second start of the season early due to injury and ended up undergoing Tommy John surgery that will keep him sidelined well into next year, too.
Among other hurdles, the Cubs have also dealt with:
—Boyd, the Opening Day starter, landed on the IL two separate times, including once for a knee injury when he bent down to play with his children at home.
—Top offseason trade acquisition Edward Cabrera hit the shelf three times and pitched to a 5.96 ERA and -1.4 WAR when he has been on the mound.
—The top bullpen additions over the winter (Phil Maton, Hunter Harvey) haven’t panned out, as Harvey made just 4 appearances and Maton posted a 6.18 ERA in 31 games while battling a knee issue all season.
—Closer Daniel Palencia has been limited to only 32 games due to an oblique strain and elbow inflammation.
—Ben Brown, in the midst of a breakout season, landed on the IL again with a neck issue that cost him more than half the season in 2024. Brown was marching toward a return last month, but hit a setback and was ultimately shut down for the season.
—Former ace Justin Steele was initially targeting a return in May or June after elbow surgery last spring. But he also experienced a setback and has been sidelined all year (though it’s still possible he could make his season debut this weekend).
Those are just the highlights — er … lowlights — of the season and all the pitching injuries the Cubs have had to endure.
It has been a trying season in a lot of ways.
“What’s great about teams is you got your opponents in front of you and you try to beat them,” manager Craig Counsell said. “And then you also got all these circumstances in front of you that you got to beat throughout the course of the season.
“And I think one of the things that thus far we’ve done a good job of is whatever circumstances get thrown in front of this group, they’ve responded really well to it.”
The Cubs have found a way to rise above the adversity this season, netting the third-best run differential in the game behind only the Brewers and Dodgers.
“This team has shown amazing resiliency throughout the year,” Jed Hoyer said. “We’ve been knocked down a bunch of times — mostly on the pitching side — and the guys have really kept playing. I think that’s been a real positive.”
There has been plenty that has broken right for the Cubs — headlined by Pete Crow-Armstrong’s run at the MVP that has Hoyer saying it’s the “best position player season” he’s ever seen.
Crow-Armstrong swiped his 40th base of the season in Thursday’s win, becoming only the seventh MLB player ever to join the 40-40 club.
It has been a meteoric rise to superstardom for the Cubs 24-year-old center fielder who has set records and leads baseball by a wide margin in WAR.
After a rough first half, Alex Bregman has been as advertised for this team as an impactful player both on and off the field. His absence has been felt this week in the lineup as he recovers from multiple facial fractures.
Led by those two stars, the Cubs are the best offensive and defensive team in baseball — and that strength has helped carry this group into the postseason once again.
Still, the gap remains between the Cubs and the Brewers, who have marched out to the best record in baseball — 12 games ahead of the second-place Cubs.
Instead of getting a first-round Bye and a chance to rest, the Cubs will have to play in another uber-tense best-of-three Wild Card Series next week.
They hold tiebreakers over the San Diego Padres and Philadelphia Phillies, but the Cubs will have to take care of business over the final three games to ensure they play that series at home — in front of the Wrigley Field faithful that create a huge homefield advantage at the corner of Clark and Addison.
“I think it’s just a great reminder of why we play the game,” Nico Hoerner said. “Counsell has done a great job of emphasizing the importance of leaning into teammates and team dynamics and everything even moreso this time of year.
“It’s a time when things feel stronger — the end of the season with a lot on the line. Those are also times with the greatest opportunity, too. So just really leaning into all of it.”
Clinching the playoffs Thursday afternoon was a start. But the Cubs have bigger goals in mind after coming up one win short of the NLCS last fall.
