CHICAGO -- The Cubs fully expected to be back on the October stage this fall, but the team did not anticipate the kind of daunting, winding road it took to reach the clinching moment on Thursday afternoon at Wrigley Field.
No team is immune to trials and setbacks, but the 2026 Cubs were battered with injuries and obstacles that tested the group and created some drama when it came to finally punching the ticket to the postseason. But in the final home game of the regular season, the North Siders got it done with a 2-1 victory over the Miami Marlins and celebrated with plenty of champagne spraying around the clubhouse.
“To be able to celebrate together after all we’ve been through is pretty cool,” said Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson, drenched and wearing ski goggles as protection from the wild scene around him. “Obviously, we wished it could’ve happened a little bit earlier, but all in perfect timing.”
The clinching victory featured some fitting heroes.
There was Pete Crow-Armstrong, stealing second base in the first inning and soaking in the “M-V-P!” chants after becoming the seventh player in MLB history to join the 40-40 Club. There was veteran Matthew Boyd, the Opening Day starter, fashioning a gem in a game that had a must-win feel. And there was Ian Happ, the longest-tenured player on the roster, coming through with a triple in the sixth to spark the winning rally in what might be one of his final games with the only ballclub he has known.
Now, the Cubs can at the very least hit the road for the final three games of the season knowing that they have a spot reserved in the playoffs. What Chicago will solve in the next few days is which of the three National League Wild Card spots will wind up in their hands. That will finalize where the Cubs will travel for the first round.
“You just appreciate that you’re here,” Crow-Armstrong said. “And I’m sure I’ll continue to learn that it doesn't really matter how you make the playoffs. It’s just the fact that you're there and that you've given yourself a chance to go play more baseball and win more games. Today’s a great day.
“Perfect world, I think we leave no doubt. But, we’ve fought so hard this year in so many different ways.”
That will continue over the next few days, too.
The Cubs have three games left against the Red Sox, beginning with a doubleheader on Friday at Fenway Park. There is a major storm due to hit the region this weekend, so Sunday’s game was moved up and there is still uncertainty surrounding how the series schedule will play out if the weather does not cooperate.
“That’s actually the fun of it, is we don't know what’s going to get thrown in front of us,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “And we don’t know what we’re going to have to respond to. You kind of enjoy it. This weekend’s a great example. Whatever you want to make us do, we’ll do it. Let’s go.”
In the meantime, the Cubs can celebrate this first step in what they hope is a longer journey.
This is the first time since 2015-18 that Chicago has been to the postseason in consecutive years. That last run included three trips to the NL Championship Series and a World Series triumph in ‘16 that ended a 108-year drought. Ten years later, this Cubs squad would love nothing more than to make the most of this anniversary season in the coming weeks.
Boyd gave the Cubs seven innings, with his lone setback coming with an RBI single by Jakob Marsee in the third. That run was cancelled out in the fifth, when Seiya Suzuki launched a game-tying solo homer off Marlins reliever Jack Ralston. An inning later, Happ tripled deep into the right-center gap and scored the go-ahead run on a single off the bat of Nico Hoerner.
“Ian doesn’t show much emotion on the field,” Counsell said. “But there was a little extra there that you don’t see that often.”
Happ said he was soaking up the entire day – an emotional one in a season that has tested the Cubs.
“The ups and downs. The injuries. Losing guys,” Happ said. “It’s been a roller coaster and I think the resilience of this group, and the ability to get through that, speaks volumes.”
The Cubs lost Cade Horton, last season’s NL Rookie of the Year runner-up, two starts into his season due to elbow surgery. Chicago had a pair of 10-game winning streaks and a 10-game losing streak before the end of May. Ben Brown, Chicago’s best pitcher in the first half, was sidelined for the season with a neck issue by June. The Cubs have rattled off 13 walk-off wins. Fourteen different relievers have notched at least one save for a bullpen that has faced injuries and turnover.
And that is just a sampling from this season of extremes for the North Siders, and why the team felt a party was warranted after gaining entry to the October dance.
“Every team has battled some sort of adversity,” Boyd said. “Our team, we’ve dealt with a lot of it. And it’s taken the totality of our roster to get to where we are. I think that’s one of the cool things. It’s going to take all of us to get to where we want to go.
“Today is an amazing acknowledgement, acknowledging that path that we’ve taken and how it’s taken all of us to get there. And knowing that the job’s not done.”