FROM WILD TO CARDS
Arrieta shuts down Pirates while being center of attention in scrum; Schwarber keys offense
PITTSBURGH — Anyone who wondered how this uninitiated young Cubs team would handle the playoffs needed to duck if they were anywhere near home plate in the seventh inning Wednesday night at PNC Park.
Cubs ace Jake Arrieta, who already had throttled the Pirates for six innings, was drilled by a pitch from Tony Watson in the seventh, briefly exchanged words and then found himself in the middle of a bench-clearing scrum near home plate, briefly delaying the Cubs’ first postseason victory in 12 years.
Less than seven innings into the win-or-go-home wild-card playoff game, it was the team with all the playoff experience the last three years that snapped under the duress of Arrieta’s dominance.
And the team with three rookies in the lineup got three RBI early from one of them. Kyle Schwarber had an RBI single in the first and a two-run homer in the third that cleared the rightfield seats and headed toward the Alleghany River.
“This is a special group that we have here,” Schwarber said as the champagne sprayed in the clubhouse after the 4-0 victory. “I feel that this group can go all the way.”
Next comes a date with the Cardinals on Friday in St. Louis for the opener of the first postseason series in history between the Midwest rivals — certain to be another high-tension series between heated rivals.
The Cubs won the last two series of the season against the Cards.
“We’re bulldogs. We’re going to fight,” Addison Russell said. “We’re going to fight till the end. The type of players we have, we’re not going to shy down from a challenge.
“We just went out there and handled some business.”
Arrieta handled a lot of it with a four-hit complete game, striking out 11 to tie Kerry Wood’s 2003 playoff record.
“I don’t even think he was on like he’s been on,” Wood said. “It’s scary how good this guy.”
But it was a supporting cast of rookies and firstyear Cubs veterans that also made this unlikely October ride to St. Louis happen.
Schwarber was in Class AA when the season opened and Russell was in Class AAA.
“It’s crazy to think,” said Schwarber, who debuted in June. “But this is crunch time. We’re ready for it.”
A year early? No expectations?
If that idea didn’t sail out of the stadium with Schwarber’s home run, it was beaten to a pulp in the seventh-inning shoving match that might have put the Cardinals and everyone else in the playoffs on notice that the Cubs have arrived.
“I really believe the process is fearless,” Cubs man-
ager Joe Maddon said, after trying to explain how somany young players have been able to continue to contribute to a 97-win team so late in the season.
“If you’re really focusing on the outcome and just winning, then you can become fearful. But you just focus on the process, the process is fearless. From Day 1 we talked about process more than anything.”
Whether anyone else believed they could reach this point — let alone what Schwarber believes is coming in a few weeks — they’re here now.
“I don’t think it’s early at all,” Rookie of the Year favorite Kris Bryant said of the expectations. “We believe in ourselves.
“This is a really an exciting time for the Cubs,” first baseman Anthony Rizzo said before the game. “But we have a lot to prove. We have a lot of talent, but we have to go out and take it.”
Building on what they’ve done all year— including a 46-18 finish to the regular season — the Cubs jumped ahead of Cole quickly when Dexter Fowler singled leading off the game, then stole second and then scored on Schwarber’s ensuing single.
By the time Schwarber cleared the seats in the third, and Fowler added a solo shot to center in the fifth, the team that finished in last place the last two seasons and looked like a decent bet for 83 or 84 wins, suddenly was on its way to achieving something not even Alfonso Soriano’s high-priced playoff teams in 2007 and ’08 couldn’t do. Win a playoff game.