CHICAGO -- Even with one team’s place in the postseason locked up and the other’s fully vaporized, a late September matchup between the Cardinals and Cubs at Wrigley Field always has the potential to bring drama and intrigue.
The bottom of Saturday’s eighth inning even brought some history -- though not as much as an antsy Chicago crowd anticipated -- and perhaps just enough to add a couple drops more fuel to one of the game’s historic rivalries.
Michael Busch homered in the first and fifth, doubled in the third and tripled in the seventh. He walked to home plate in the eighth just a single shy of the cycle, but lingered there only momentarily before a signal from the St. Louis dugout sent him to first base with an intentional walk.
And oh, how the boos came raining down.
“I’m not here for anybody’s amusement,” said Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol. “I’m trying to win a game. The next guy [Nico Hoerner] grounded out to the pitcher, so I think it worked.”
“That’s a baseball decision,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell concurred. “Rightfully, it was not met with friendliness from the home crowd, but it’s just a baseball decision.”
Two batters before Busch, with Jorge Alcala on the mound and the Cubs leading by the eventual final score of 7-3, Dansby Swanson followed a two-run homer by Pete Crow-Armstrong with a double to left field. Swanson, sitting on 24 homers and 19 stolen bases, saw an opening and broke for third base during Matt Shaw’s at-bat, securing his 20th steal after a replay review confirmed that his hand beat the tag from Nolan Arenado.
That gave the Cubs three players with at least 20 homers and 20 steals (Crow-Armstrong and Kyle Tucker), tying a Major League record previously held by the 1988 Mets and 2009 Phillies. After Shaw struck out, there was more history literally on deck -- momentarily.
“I understand it,” Swanson said. “They’re still competing and figuring that’s the way to give them a chance to win. I hate that we obviously didn’t get a chance at some history today for him. I hate it for Buschy. But I guess I’d be a little bit sick of watching him hit a lot of homers and all that kind of stuff, too.”
Saturday’s game was far from the first time Busch tormented the Cardinals in 2025. With one game to play between the teams, his slash line stands at a preposterous .467/.510/1.222 with nine homers, five doubles and 17 RBIs against the Redbirds. He is the first Cub to ever record at least 13 total bases in a single game twice in one season, and both came at Wrigley against St. Louis; the other was on July 4, when he parked three homers and a single.
“I just felt good today. Selfishly, I wanted the at-bat,” Busch admitted. “But there’s nothing better than the victory itself.”
Marmol denied any linkage between the intentional walk and Swanson’s steal, saying he had “zero problems” with that decision.
“We’re giving it to him there with our [pitcher’s] headwork,” he said. “He should take it. Take advantage of it.”
Cardinals starter Michael McGreevy, who was in the clubhouse receiving arm care during the eighth inning, admitted that he could hear -- and feel -- the reaction of the crowd reverberating all the way up the two long flights of stairs which lead from the dugout to the visitors’ clubhouse at the Friendly Confines.
“I loved it,” Marmol said of the crowd’s reaction. “Honestly, I did. I love playing here. There’s a real home-field advantage, the way they go about it, and you feel the animosity. I absolutely loved the reaction, and I respect it, I really do.”