CHICAGO – It had been a long time since Wrigley Field shook the way it did on Tuesday afternoon. A nervous energy humming through the crowd transformed into full frenzy after the baseball launched by Seiya Suzuki defied the wind and disappeared into the sea of celebrating fans in the left-center-field bleachers.
The decibel level climbed higher – somehow – when Carson Kelly followed the fifth-inning shot with one of his own, helping power the Cubs to a 3-1 victory over the Padres in Game 1 of the National League Wild Card Series. Chicago’s fans had waited seven years to pack the old ballpark for a postseason game, and the Cubs delivered a classic opening win.
“Simply put, it was fantastic,” Suzuki said via his interpreter, Edwin Stanberry. “You just felt the passion of the fans, them cheering us on. Rounding the bases, I felt some nerves, obviously, but great feeling overall.”
The back-to-back blasts from Suzuki and Kelly provided the spark, shortstop Dansby Swanson delivered a pair of crucial defensive plays and the bullpen’s 4 2/3 perfect innings behind a strong start from Matthew Boyd closed the deal. That pushed the North Siders into the win column in a playoff game for the first time since Game 4 of the 2017 NL Championship Series against the Dodgers.
The Game 1 win also put the Cubs in a great position, given that 90% (18 out of 20) of teams to take the opener of a best-of-three Wild Card Series have advanced. That includes 16 sweeps. Teams to win Game 1 at home have swept their opponent all seven times.
Suzuki and Kelly’s feat was also the first time Cubs players connected for consecutive home runs since Miguel Montero and Dexter Fowler in Game 1 of the NL Championship Series against the Dodgers in the run to the World Series crown in 2016.
Prior to Tuesday’s game, Jake Arrieta – the NL’s Cy Young winner in 2015 and one of Chicago’s aces during the '16 triumph – threw out a wild ceremonial first pitch and got on a mic to fire up the crowd by yelling, “Play ball!” As it happens, Arrieta was the pitcher who picked up the win over the Dodgers the last time the Cubs won a postseason game.
“I remember that one, yeah,” said Ian Happ, who was a rookie in '17. “Being able to get a win for those fans – you heard it, it was loud. People are excited. The homers were just really fun. That’s what this playoff atmosphere is all about. And they were a ruckus until the very end there. For us, getting that first one is huge.”
Heading into this series, Suzuki said he watched some old highlights of the Cubs’ postseason runs and was energized by the scenes he witnessed. His leadoff shot in the fifth off Padres righty Nick Pivetta – one projected at 424 feet with an exit velocity of 112.2 mph – provided a new moment for fans to revisit.
After a prolonged power outage across August and September, Suzuki ended the regular season with five homers in his last four games and his confidence soaring. He became the first player in MLB history to enter a postseason with a four-game homer streak and then launch another in the first game of the playoffs.
“I can't really explain it,” Suzuki said of his recent tear. “I think with the past week coming into this game, I feel like there's been a playoff switch that's been turned on.”
Suzuki’s surge could not have come at a better time for the Cubs.
“Those, I think in the postseason, are hits [that] just change the stadium,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “It changes the energy of the stadium completely. It's just about that. And I'm really happy for Seiya. I know he was very, very excited to take part in this and to play in this, and happy he had a big role in it.”
With the crowd still buzzing from Suzuki’s game-tying shot, Kelly attacked an elevated 2-2 fastball from Pivetta that was north of the strike zone. His blast also soared over left-center, giving the Cubs a 2-1 lead and a dream moment for the Chicago-born catcher.
“You feel like you’re on cloud nine running around,” Kelly said, “just how much this fan base cares for Cubs baseball. And watching the Cubs’ day games as a little kid, and seeing the energy, seeing the crowd and getting to do it in real life is truly an honor.”
This represented the fourth time overall that the Cubs belted back-to-back home runs in a postseason game. In that ‘16 NLCS, Montero and Fowler pulled it off against Los Angeles in the eighth inning to propel the Cubs to a dramatic win. That Montero shot – a pinch-hit grand slam that rattled the Friendly Confines – is one of the great home runs in the ballclub’s long, storied history.
You can now add Tuesday’s homers from Suzuki and Kelly to that list.
“No moment is too big for anybody in our lineup, anybody in our bullpen, in our rotation,” Boyd said. “No surprise that it was Seiya and Carson today doing their thing at the plate. It was pretty awesome. And man, it was fun to watch from the dugout.”