Miguel Montero led off the bottom of the 10th inning with a home run to give the Cubs a dramatic 5-4 win over the Brewers at Wrigley Field. In order to achieve that goal, the Cubs would have to win six of their remaining 15 games, with their record now sitting at 94-53 on the year.
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Jake Arrieta hasn’t quite duplicated the numbers from his Cy Young Award campaign of a year ago, but the Chicago Cubs pitcher can take over the National League lead for wins with a victory over the visiting Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday. It finally happened. For the first time in eight years, the Chicago Cubs are National League Central Division Champions.
Wrigley Field was empty when Matt Adams made the final out on the West Coast, but a loud cheer went up in the neighborhood around the iconic ballpark and several people honked their auto horns.
It was another rough day in a long season for the Brew Crew.
This season has been full of historical firsts for the Cubs and clinching the division crown yesterday was no exception. But the final out in San Francisco touched off a celebration in Chicago that included honking horns and chanting in the streets.
“The biggest thing will just be rest”, Maddon said.
“I don’t think I’ve been on a team this talented and capable of dominating at times”, said second baseman Ben Zobrist.
Keon Broxton launched a solo homer during a three-run fourth for Milwaukee.
The Brewers (66-82) continue their series in Chicago (94-53) tomorrow at 3:05 PM CST when Zach Davies (10-7) faces off against Jake Arrieta (17-6), who now has a higher ERA (2.91) than Junior Guerra (2.81). Ross, who plans to retire after this year, wanted to celebrate his last division title.
It is 108 years since Chicago last won the World Series in 1908, a drought the Cubs hope to end this year. “I don’t know. We’re just going to get after it”. “It kind of all boils down to how you perform in October”. Game time will be announced when the postseason arrives. Ironically it was the Giants that lost to the Athletics last season on September 25th that locked up a Wild Card berth for the Cubs in the 2015 playoffs.
“The atmosphere tonight was probably one of the best games I’ve been a part of”, Montgomery said. The Cubs remember the Mets well, as the Mets bounced the North side crew in the NLCS after the Cubs swept them during the regular season.
Chicago (94-53) pushed across two runs in the ninth and Montero connected for a leadoff drive in the 10th against Blaine Boyer (2-4). Mengden (2-7) gave up three hits, walked none and struck out six, picking up his first victory since June 27.
The Cleveland Indians took their season record against Detroit to 12-1 with an 11-4 drubbing of the Tigers, while the San Francisco Giants were 8-2 conquerors of the St Louis Cardinals. Sanchez entered the game batting just.173. So hopefully there’s a lot more partying to go on, especiially here at Wrigley.
Thornburg also worked the ninth for his 10th save in 15 chances.
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“Carlos had a bad day”, manager Craig Counsell said.
