Cubs rally past Scherzer, Nats for 2-1 series lead

CHICAGO — Moments after his go-ahead hit, Anthony Rizzo walked across the infield at frenzied Wrigley Field and shouted “Respect me! Respect me!”

A year after their historic Major League Baseball championship, Rizzo and the Chicago Cubs are fighting for another memorable October.

Rizzo blooped a tiebreaking single into left field with two outs in the eighth and the Cubs overcame Max Scherzer’s brilliant performance to beat the Washington Nationals, 2-1, on Monday for a 2-1 lead in their National League Division Series.

The Nationals had a base open with Rizzo coming to the plate and pinch runner Leonys Martin on second, but manager Dusty Baker elected to pitch to the slugger with Willson Conteras on-deck. Oliver Perez came in and Rizzo looped his first pitch into shallow left-centre, finding a patch of grass between three Washington fielders.

Rizzo stumbled after he took a big turn around first and was tagged out to end the inning, but he didn’t seem to care too much, demanding veneration as the Cubs came out of the dugout for the ninth. “I want to make guys pay,” Rizzo said. “I hit where I hit in the order. I drive in runs, and that’s just the mentality that I always take in. Usually I keep that stuff behind the scenes and say that stuff, but just my emotions got me there.”

Baker had a different viewpoint. Asked if Rizzo, who drove in two runs in each of the first two games of the series, seems like a player who gets hits at key moments in the playoffs, Baker responded: “Well, yeah, I guess. I mean, it’s not really turning it on when you bloop one in there, you know what I mean?”

Scherzer was dominant in his return from a right hamstring injury, carrying a no-hitter into the seventh. But, just like in Game 1, when Chicago was held hitless into the sixth by Stephen Strasburg, the World Series champion Cubs showed off their resilience.

Game 4 of the best-of-five series is Tuesday. Jake Arrieta returns from his own hamstring injury for the Cubs, while Tanner Roark gets the ball for the Nationals.

Chicago committed four errors, including two by left-fielder Kyle Schwarber on one ugly play, and Jason Heyward also made a baserunning mistake. But the Cubs got a huge pinch-hit RBI single from Albert Almora Jr. and a solid pitching performance from Jose Quintana in the return of post-season baseball to Wrigley after last year’s World Series ended in Cleveland.