October 3, 2018 • Chicago Tribune, Column: Dazed and confused by stunning end to season, Cubs begin searching for

answers http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-season-over-sullivan-20181003-story.html

• Chicago Tribune, Cubs' season with a shot and some hugs: 'Sometimes you have to take the bad with the good. Now, we’re taking the bad.' http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-season-over-20181003-story.html

• Chicago Tribune, Cubs players endorse Joe Maddon's return: 'He shouldn’t be questioned one bit'

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-joe-maddon-contract-return-20181003-story.html

• Chicago Tribune, Kyle Hendricks takes the loss after giving up a 13th-inning RBI single to an

unlikely Rockies hero http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-kyle-hendricks-tony-wolters-20181003-story.html

• Chicago Tribune, Cubs’ season ends with 2-1, 13-inning loss to Rockies in NL wild-card game

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-rockies-wild-card-20181002-story.html

• Chicago Tribune, Kyle Schwarber and Jon Lester insist pain of 2018 can make Cubs better in '19 http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-schwarber-lester-bright-side-20181003-story.html

• Chicago Tribune, Column: ESPN’s Alex Rodriguez lecturing Javier Baez on base-running rules? That’s hilarious. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-espn-alex-rodriguez-javier-baez-hug-20181003-story.html

• Chicago Tribune, Terrance Gore: Wild-card loss 'hurts, but these guys next year will come back strong' http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-cubs-terrance-gore-20181003-story.html

• Chicago Tribune, Column: The only certainty for the Cubs is change, a necessity after they exit meekly from the playoffs http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-rockies-wild-card-david-haugh-20181002-story.html

• Chicago Tribune, Column: For Cubs, you can't beat angst at the old ballpark

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-angst-sullivan-20181002-story.html

• Chicago Tribune, Wildly protracted wild card ends in disappointment for fans http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-met-cubs-rockies-fans-20181002-story.html

• Chicago Tribune, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred says decision to come 'shortly' on Addison Russell investigation http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-addison-russell-investigation-20181002-story.html

• Chicago Sun-Times, Successful? Not this Cubs season, team says: ‘We lost’

https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/successful-not-this-cubs-season-team-says-we-lost/ • Chicago Sun-Times, Should he stay or should he go? Cubs players have manager Joe Maddon’s

back https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/cubs-joe-madden-anthony-rizzo-kris-bryant-2018/

• Chicago Sun-Times, One and done: Anemic hitting leads to 2-1, 13-inning loss, quick exit for Cubs https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/one-and-done-anemic-hitting-leads-2-1-13-inning-loss-quick-exit-cubs/

• Chicago Sun-Times, A season without a World Series appearance by the Cubs is a disappointment https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/chicago-cubs-world-series-wild-card-theo-epstein-joe-maddon/

• Chicago Sun-Times, Cubs’ bats didn’t back him up, but starter Jon Lester was more than good

enough https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/cubs-rockies-jon-lester-nl-wild-card-2018/

• Chicago Sun-Times, Commissioner: MLB could rule on Addison Russell case this month https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/commissioner-mlb-could-rule-addison-russell-domestic-violence-case-this-month/

• Daily Herald, 'I don't feel like we lost this; I feel like they beat us': Cubs season ends in wild-card

game https://www.dailyherald.com/sports/20181002/i-dont-feel-like-we-lost-this-i-feel-like-they-beat-us-cubs-season-ends-in-wild-card-game

• Daily Herald, Manfred: No timetable on finishing Russell investigation

https://www.dailyherald.com/sports/20181002/manfred-no-timetable-on-finishing-russell-investigation

• The Athletic, Why you’ll always remember the Cubs-Rockies wild-card game, even if you’d rather

forget it https://theathletic.com/565409/2018/10/03/why-youll-always-remember-the-cubs-rockies-wild-card-game-even-if-youd-rather-forget-it/

• The Athletic, Change is coming to a Cubs team that failed to live up to its own great expectations

https://theathletic.com/565291/2018/10/03/change-is-coming-to-a-cubs-team-that-failed-to-live-up-to-its-own-great-expectations/

• The Athletic, Javy Báez’s bat alone can’t carry listless Cubs offense in wild-card loss

https://theathletic.com/565273/2018/10/03/javy-baezs-bat-alone-cant-carry-listless-cubs-offense-in-wild-card-loss/

• The Athletic, After five hours and 164 games, the Cubs had a lot of love and not enough runs https://theathletic.com/565235/2018/10/03/after-five-hours-and-164-games-the-cubs-had-a-lot-of-love-and-not-enough-runs/

• The Athletic, MLB commissioner: Ruling coming soon in Addison Russell case https://theathletic.com/564332/2018/10/02/mlb-commissioner-ruling-coming-soon-in-addison-russell-case/

• Cubs.com, Cubs' season ends after Wild, dramatic night https://www.mlb.com/cubs/news/cubs-fall-to-rockies-in-13th-in-wild-card-game/c-296912564

• Cubs.com, Gore lights fuse, but fireworks never come https://www.mlb.com/cubs/news/terrance-gore-javier-baez-spark-cubs-rally/c-296928378

• Cubs.com, Lester pads postseason resume with 9-K gem https://www.mlb.com/cubs/news/jon-lester-strong-in-nl-wild-card-game/c-296926574

• ESPNChicago.com, After playoff elimination, Cubs reflect on season and look ahead

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/24878391/chicago-cubs-reeling-elimination-postseason • NBC Sports Chicago, What went wrong for the 2018 Cubs? Allow Javy Baez to explain...

https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/cubs/what-went-wrong-2018-cubs-allow-javy-baez-explain • NBC Sports Chicago, Do the Cubs consider the 2018 season a success? 'No'

https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/cubs/do-cubs-consider-2018-season-success-no-almora-bryant-rizzo-world-series-postseason

• NBC Sports Chicago, After earliest playoff exit of the Joe Maddon Era, Cubs players praise their oft-

criticized manager https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/cubs/after-earliest-playoff-exit-joe-maddon-era-cubs-players-praise-their-oft-criticized-manager

• NBC Sports Chicago, Cubs' season comes to a screeching halt after just one playoff game

https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/cubs/cubs-season-comes-screeching-halt-after-just-one-playoff-game

-- Chicago Tribune Column: Dazed and confused by stunning end to season, Cubs begin searching for answers By Paul Sullivan

Like everyone else, the Cubs were stunned to see their season end early Wednesday after spending most of the year planning for the postseason. “It’s a very weird feeling, completely unexpected,” Kyle Hendricks said after the 2-1, 13-inning loss to the Rockies in the National League wild-card game. “That’s why guys are just hanging around, don’t really know what to do. We definitely weren’t ready to be done this early. “Remember this feeling because it is hard to stay at the top year in and year out. Remember this feeling and use it as fuel next year maybe. It’s going to take some time to process once we get away from this, for sure.” There is a lot to process, and much debate will be made about what went wrong and who’s to blame for the early exit. The fatigue factor, second-half injuries to two closers, Kris Bryant’s left shoulder injury and the mysterious disappearing offense are high on the list. And this being Chicago, manager Joe Maddon will get blamed. But the Cubs made no excuses after a classic postseason game ended with a loss — and none were necessary. The Cubs were a very good team, but their competition has passed them. “We lost,” Anthony Rizzo said. “We lost to teams that are better than us. That’s all you can say. We just fell short.” Jon Lester said it might be better in the long run that the Cubs had it handed to them in the end, even as painful as it was. “Sometimes you need to get your (expletive) knocked in the dirt to see where you’re at,” Lester said. “Maybe we needed to get knocked down a peg or two and realize nothing is going to be given to us.” That was as honest an assessment as you will hear from an athlete, though Javier Baez’s analysis also was blunt. Baez harped on the Cubs’ inability to ignore their competition and worry only about themselves. “Everybody went down,” Baez said. “We fought because we have to come here the next day and play baseball. It was tough without the bullpen, without KB, without (Yu) Darvish. But at the end of the day, we still tied (for most NL wins until the tiebreaker). “We struggled the whole year — the whole year! Tony (Rizzo) struggled all April. We just kept going (and said), ‘We’re going to get it back, we’re going to be together.’ But it never came to us. We were never in a rhythm of winning games, and I think it was because we were paying attention to other teams because we were going down. We lost so many people from our lineup that we were just paying attention to what other teams were doing, and that’s not how it works. ... “Next year we’re going to try again and we’re going to make an adjustment about that. I’m going to make sure, because I don’t want to hear anything about other teams. We know what we’ve got.” The Cubs core will remain in 2019 — Baez, Bryant, Rizzo, Hendricks, Lester, Jason Heyward, Jose Quintana, Willson Contreras and Brandon Morrow.

Addison Russell is likely gone, and Kyle Schwarber, Ian Happ and Albert Almora probably will hear their names in trade rumors again. When teams don’t do what they’re expected to do, they make changes. “We won a lot of games, we just didn’t win the most important game,” Bryant said. “This is the best time for this organization. The fans and the organization have suffered a long time. It’s important for us to be proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish. “Obviously we didn’t accomplish what we wanted to this year, but there is still a lot to be proud of.” The players almost unanimously backed Maddon, who seems to bear the brunt of the criticism when things go wrong — as they did in the final two games when the offense fizzled. “I just don’t see where he’s going to get heat from,” Rizzo said. “He’s managed his ass off this year with what we’ve been dealt, as far as losing Yu, as far as losing (Brandon) Morrow, as far as Stropy going down and KB not being healthy all year. And we still figured out a way to win. “It’s all a credit to him. Without his leadership, guys are not playing the way they play. David Bote is not coming up here and playing the way he plays without (Maddon’s) leadership and the leadership in the clubhouse. “I think Joe’s best year was this year as far as managing all the moving parts.” The offense will be a sore point all winter, and hitting coach Chili Davis will wear some of it because that’s what hitting coaches get paid to do. Rizzo said he thought the team’s hitting approach was of the “right mindset” and that the problem was “more (lack of) execution” than anything else. “As an offense we need to mature a little more and develop a little more,” Rizzo said. “At times we did this year as a unit. And at times, not so much.” Bryant agreed. “We’d love to go out there and hit better with runners in scoring position, square the ball up more,” he said. “But we just didn’t do that. It’s frustrating and I don’t have an answer. “It’s making me more motivated to figure it out. That’s how I’ve always been my whole life, whether it’s been baseball or school or Monopoly or whatever, I’m always going to try to find a way to get better.” Tuesday’s game was a microcosm of the 2018 season, which was tough to figure out from the start. “It’s been a roller coaster for this team, a roller coaster for the fans, for Chicago,” Rizzo said. “But they’ve stayed behind us.” --

Chicago Tribune Cubs' season with a shot and some hugs: 'Sometimes you have to take the bad with the good. Now, we’re taking the bad.' By Mark Gonzales After taking a collective shot and sharing some hugs early Wednesday morning, Cubs players reflected on their sudden elimination from the postseason in which they failed to reach the National League Division Series for the first time in four years. Despite the team winning 95 games, breakout star Javier Baez pinpointed a flaw that seemed apparent even when the Cubs led the NL Central by five games with four weeks left in the season. “We were never in a rhythm of winning games,” said Baez, whose two-out single scored Terrance Gore in the eighth inning for the Cubs’ lone run in a 2-1, 13-inning loss to the Rockies in the NL wild-card game. “And I think it was because were paying attention to other teams as we were going down because we lost so many people from our lineup that we were paying attention to other teams. That’s not how it works. That’s how I look at it. “Next year we’re going to come back and fight again and make adjustments about that. I don’t want to hear nothing about other teams. We know what we’ve got.” After pitching six innings of four-hit ball but receiving no run support, veteran left-hander Jon Lester believes the sudden elimination can serve as a learning tool. “Sometimes you have to take the bad with the good,” said Lester, owner of three World Series rings with two years left on his contract. “Now, we’re taking the bad. “Sometimes you need to get your (expletive) knocked in the dirt in order to appreciate where you’re at. Maybe we needed that, maybe we needed to get knocked down a peg or two to realize nothing is going to be given to us.” Left-hander Cole Hamels hopes the Cubs will pick up his $20 million option for 2019, in part because of his positive experience after getting traded from the Rangers on July 27 and the desire to be part of a rebound. “Hopefully this is something I can be a part of next year,” said Hamels, who threw two scoreless innings of relief in the loss. “I was very fortunate to make the postseason when I was very young (in 2007 with the Phillies). We were swept by Colorado, and that taught us what the postseason really was. And what it was to not just play to the end but play to the end of the postseason. And we won the World Series the next year. This is a tremendous experience for a lot of guys. “You have to go through the hardships before you get to the big moments. I know there are a lot of players here who won the World Series, but there’s also a lot who didn’t have that certain participation that you look for. That’s great for them.” But the cold reality is that the team will not stay fully intact because of free agency, payroll considerations and the need to address shortcomings. “There’s going to be new guys in there,” pitcher Kyle Hendricks said. “That’s just the nature of the game. That’s unfortunate. There are guys we’ve grown close to. We wish it could be the same group to go back to battle next year, but there’s got to be changes.

“You got to keep the relationships close. Whoever ends up being here, they’ll be all in and remember this feeling going into next year and use that as motivation and march all the way to the end, hopefully.” Next season could result in a bigger leadership role for Baez, who led the Cubs with 34 home runs and 111 RBIs and likely will take over at shortstop if Addison Russell doesn’t return. Commissioner Rob Manfred told reporters before the game that a decision on Russell, who is on administrative leave while MLB investigates his ex-wife’s allegations of domestic abuse, could come shortly. “What hurts me is the teammates that are leaving,” Baez said. “I like to learn a lot from my teammates, even if it’s good or bad. “We have a lot of free agents this year. One is Stropy (reliever Pedro Strop), who is one of my best friends in my whole career.” The Cubs hold a $6.25 million option on Strop with a $500,000 buyout. -- Chicago Tribune Cubs players endorse Joe Maddon's return: 'He shouldn’t be questioned one bit' By Mark Gonzales Several minutes after Cubs president Theo Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer made their traditional postgame visit to Joe Maddon’s office, pitcher Kyle Hendricks grimaced when asked about any criticism heaved at his manager in the wake of the team’s stunning and quick elimination from the postseason. “There’s absolutely nothing to that,” Hendricks said after allowing three consecutive singles with two out in the 13th inning of a 2-1 loss to the Rockies in the National League wild-card game. “Joe did an unbelievable job all year long with a lot of the big pieces going down throughout the entire year. Every guy coming up (from the minors), shuffling all the pieces. With the bullpen taking care of that, and to win 95 games at the end of the year, it’s where we wanted to be. We just came up a little short, but he did an unbelievable job. He shouldn’t be questioned one bit.” Anthony Rizzo didn’t question Maddon’s decision to lift him with two out in the eighth for pinch-runner Terrance Gore, who stole second base and scored on a game-tying double by Javier Baez. “I come out of the game, and (Gore) scores,” Rizzo said. “You can’t question it. I don’t want to come out of a game, but that point, I was cheerleading with the pompons on and cheer the boys on. “Our (motto) was ‘everybody in,’ and we did that.” Maddon has one year and $6 million left on his contract and expectations were high for a Cubs team that fell short of reaching the NL Championship Series for the first time in four seasons under his watch. Cubs officials are expected to conduct their annual postseason briefing with reporters as soon as Wednesday.

On Tuesday night, Maddon spoke as if he’ll be the manager of a team that will attempt to overcome its malaise after scoring just two runs on nine hits in their final 22 innings of the 2018 season. “I trust in Theo and Jed and the boys up top, and they will make the necessary adjustments, but again that’s not within my purview,” Maddon said at a postgame news conference. “My purview is to work with what we have, and I love what we have.” Catcher Willson Contreras, who struggled at the plate in the second half, sighed when asked if he could imagine anyone other than Maddon managing the team next season. “I don’t know what to say,” Conteras said. “I don’t make that decision. “Joe is a great manager. He’s been great for this team. He made this team a winner. The front office made this team a winner. They were able to put a lot of young talent together. We’re like a family. We love each other. We lose together and win together. Nothing that I can do about that. “We’re here to play baseball. That’s a decision I can’t control. Even if he’s here or not, we have to move forward.” -- Chicago Tribune Kyle Hendricks takes the loss after giving up a 13th-inning RBI single to an unlikely Rockies hero By Colleen Kane The Cubs clubhouse still hadn’t emptied out well after 1 a.m. Wednesday morning, and pitcher Kyle Hendricks was considering his plan to process the 2-1 loss to the Rockies in the National League wild-card game. “No idea,” Hendricks said. “We were planning on playing baseball.” Hendricks was among the Cubs players lingering at Wrigley Field trying to explain how their 95-win season had devolved into an early playoff exit. There was plenty of blame to go around Tuesday night, from missed chances on Rockies mistakes to a lingering inability to come up with a clutch hit. But Hendricks will go down as the losing pitcher after giving up a 13th-inning RBI single to unlikely Rockies hero Tony Wolters. Hendricks’ only other career relief appearance came in July 2016. In his first postseason relief outing, Hendricks retired four straight batters to end the 12th and open the 13th before giving up three straight singles to Trevor Story, Gerardo Parra and Wolters. “It was a little different, but I warmed up, felt good,” Hendricks said. “I came in, made good pitches. Even that last inning there, Story, I made a good pitch and the ball somehow got through. Parra off the end of the bat. And Wolters I maybe left the changeup up a little bit, but that’s my pitch. I’m going to go to it. There’s nothing I would have done differently really. It just didn’t work out.” Wolters, a 26-year-old catcher and infielder making his first postseason plate appearance, made sure of it.

He hit .170 in the regular season, hadn’t gotten a hit in a game since Sept. 10 and entered the night on an 0-for-15 streak. But when he stepped to the plate with two on and two out, he said his mentality was to do his part for his teammates that play every day. He knocked Hendricks’ 1-2 changeup up the middle, allowing Story to score. Afterward, he was asked by reporters at the postgame news conference whether it was the biggest hit of his life. “Are you kidding me?” Wolters said. “Yeah, that was probably the biggest hit I’ve ever had. That’s for sure. “These guys keep me confident. … This game can kick your butt sometimes. There’s a lot of adversity, but I’m not ever going to let that take me down. Adversity makes you stronger and these guys helped me out a lot.” The Cubs now have their own adversity to deal with — learning how to bounce back from a tough season. Hendricks said they could use the empty feeling in the clubhouse as fuel for next season. And he has some personal goals too after posting a 3.44 ERA over 199 regular-season innings this season. “I would say I had a tough stretch there in the middle, maybe four or five weeks I was really off,” Hendricks said. “Other than that, I’m proud of the way I was able to come back and pitch well at the end of the year for us. Going forward, hopefully I can learn a lot from that and be that consistent guy from start to finish, knowing what the team is going to get out of me every time I go out there.” -- Chicago Tribune Cubs’ season ends with 2-1, 13-inning loss to Rockies in NL wild-card game By Mark Gonzales and Colleen Kane After watching his offense sink to new depths for seven innings Tuesday night, Cubs manager Joe Maddon called for measures more drastic than pulling starter Jon Lester after six innings of four-hit ball and summoning Jason Heyward to pinch-hit with the bases loaded in the seventh. Maddon inserted pinch-runner Terrance Gore after Anthony Rizzo singled with two outs in the eighth. That move paid off when Gore stole second base and Javier Baez came through with a game-tying double for the Cubs’ second run in 19 innings. And after using three relievers, in the ninth Maddon summoned Pedro Strop, whose left hamstring was deemed healthy enough to pitch for the first time since Sept. 13; starter Cole Hamels then pitched two scoreless innings and Kyle Hendricks came in for the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th. But after retiring the first four batters he faced, Hendricks allowed three consecutive hits — topped by .170 hitter Tony Wolters’ RBI single — with two outs in the 13th that saddled the Cubs with a draining 2-1 loss in the National League wild-card game that eliminated them to end their puzzling season. The loss ended a Cubs season that featured 95 victories but their inability to hold a five-game lead with four weeks left in the regular season forced them into a win-or-else scenario after losing to the Brewers 3-1 in Monday’s NL Central tiebreaker.

The eighth-inning comeback briefly alleviated the stress that had been mounting over an offense that struggled against left-hander Kyle Freeland, who showed no effects from pitching on only three days’ rest, while wasting Lester’s six innings of four-hit ball. The Cubs led the NL with a .258 batting average without the services of slugger Kris Bryant for nearly eight weeks. But their lack of timely hitting contributed largely to losing the five-game lead they had as recently as Sept. 3. Their frustrations reached a new low in the seventh even after they loaded the bases on a catcher’s interference call on Drew Butera after it appeared pinch-hitter Tommy La Stella grounded out. But reliever Adam Ottavino, who hurled a wild pitch and walked Contreras, struck out Heyward on a 97 mph sinker to end the threat. Heyward replaced Kyle Schwarber after Butera’s error. The Cubs scored one or zero runs in 39 games during the regular season, and their frustrations continued when Ben Zobrist and Albert Almora Jr. led off the first two innings with singles but couldn’t advance. Freeland received some help from center fielder Charlie Blackmon, who sprinted to the gap in right center to rob Contreras of an extra base hit that would have scored Almora. After Almora’s hit, Freeland carved up the Cubs’ batters by jamming them with cut fastballs and altering the tempo of his windup on occasion. Freeland jammed Bryant on a soft pop to second to end the third, and he did the same with Rizzo on a grounder to short to open the fourth. The Cubs fell behind early for the third consecutive game, and the damage could have been worse had it not been for the sharpness of Lester after walking Blackmon and surrendering a double to DJ LeMahieu to start the game. The damage stopped after Nolan Arenado hit a sacrifice fly. Lester proceeded to lean more on his curveball on the outside corner to strike out Trevor Story and Matt Holliday to end the first. Lester retired 17 of the next 19 batters after the double to LeMahieu until Story doubled to left-center. But Lester rebounded quickly by striking out Holliday on his 86th and final pitch and responding with a yell and fist pump. Lester lowered his postseason ERA to 2.51 in 154 innings. Here’s how the game unfolded: Rockies take 1-0 lead in first Cubs left-hander Jon Lester issued a leadoff walk to Charlie Blackmon, who advanced to third when D.J. LeMahieu’s hit got stuck in the ivy in left field for a ground-rule double. Blackmon then scored on Nolan Arenado’s sacrifice fly to center field for a 1-0 Rockies lead. But Lester struck out Trevor Story and Matt Holliday to strand LeMahieu on third base. Almora makes big catch Cubs center fielder Albert Almora leaped to catch David Dahl’s long fly ball at the wall to highlight Lester’s 1-2-3 second inning. Almora then singled to lead off the bottom of the second, but the Cubs didn’t get on the board, thanks in part to Charlie Blackmon’s running grab in center field to rob catcher Willson Contreras of a hit.

Lester strands Holliday Matt Holliday knocked a Jon Lester curveball over the head of Cubs third baseman David Bote and into the left-field corner for a double with one out in the fourth. But Lester struck out Ian Desmond looking and got David Dahl to ground into an out at first base for another scoreless inning. Lester has six strikeouts through four innings. Freeland retires 11 straight Rockies left-hander Kyle Freeland retired 11 straight batters from the second to the fifth innings to hang on to a 1-0 lead. He struck out Cubs third baseman David Bote with his 58th pitch of the game to end the fifth, his fifth strikeout of the day. Singles from Ben Zobrist and Albert Almora in the first and second innings, respectively, are the only Cubs hits. Freeland has not issued a walk. Lester totals 9 Ks over 6 innings Cubs starter Jon Lester gave up a two-out double to Trevor Story in the sixth inning, but Matt Holliday struck out swinging to end the frame. Lester and catcher Willson Contreras pumped their fists and screamed after Lester’s ninth strikeout, which ended his outing. Cubs manager Joe Maddon brought Ian Happ in to hit for Lester to open the bottom of the sixth. Lester gave up one earned run on four hits with a walk and nine strikeouts. He threw 86 pitches. Cubs waste freebie After pinch-hitter Ian Happ walked to lead off the bottom of the sixth, Rockies right fielder David Dahl misplayed Kris Bryant’s fly ball into a hit. That gave the Cubs two on base with one out, but Anthony Rizzo hit into a 4-6-3 double play to end the Cubs’ first real scoring threat of the night. Cubs squander another opportunity The Cubs’ best chance to score came in the bottom of the seventh, after Rockies starter Kyle Freeland left with one on base and two out. Rockies shortstop Trevor Story made a diving grab of Daniel Murphy’s low liner for Freeland’s final out of the inning, and Rockies reliever Adam Ottavino entered in Freeland’s place. His first pitch was wild, allowing Almora to advance to second, and then he walked Willson Contreras. Pinch-hitter Tommy La Stella reached base on a catcher’s interference call on Drew Butera to load the bases, but pinch-hitter Jason Heyward struck out to waste yet another prime scoring opportunity. Baez double ties it 1-1 Javier Baez drove in the Cubs’ first run with two out in the eighth inning when he cracked Rockies reliever Adam Ottavino’s slider into center field for a double. Anthony Rizzo singled to center field with two out, and pinch runner Terrance Gore stole second before scoring to tie the game at 1. Baez was 0-for-3 with a strikeout entering the eighth. Strop pitches a scoreless ninth Cubs reliever Pedro Strop returned from a left hamstring strain to strike out two Rockies batters in a scoreless ninth inning. Strop, who injured his hamstring Sept. 13, gave up a single to Trevor Story but struck out Ian Desmond looking to give the Cubs a chance at a walk-off win. Game headed to extra innings Rockies closer Wade Davis struck out two Cubs batters in a scoreless bottom of the ninth inning to send the game to extra innings tied at 1. Willson Contreras walked between strikeouts by Daniel Murphy and Kyle Schwarber, and Jason Heyward grounded out to end the inning.

Game knotted at 1-1 through 11 Cole Hamels pitched two scoreless innings of relief for the Cubs in the 10th and 11th. He loaded the bases on Nolan Arenado’s single, Gerardo Parra’s walk and Ian Desmond’s fielder’s choice. But David Dahl grounded out to end the threat. Rockies reliever Seunghwan Oh walked Javier Baez to open the bottom of the 11th, and Baez advanced on Albert Almora’s sacrifice bunt. The Rockies intentionally walked Daniel Murphy to get to Willson Contreras. After fouling off a ball for a 1-2 count, Contreras stepped to the side with an apparent minor injury, but he stayed in to bat after talking with Cubs manager Joe Maddon and the training staff. He reached on a force out at third, but Victor Caratini grounded out to first to end the inning. Wolters wins it Rockies catcher Tony Wolters hit an RBI single off Cubs pitcher Kyle Hendricks in the 13thinning to lift the Rockies to a 2-1 victory over the Cubs. Hendricks, who pitched 1 1/3 innings of relief, gave up three straight singles with two out to Trevor Story, Gerardo Parra and Wolters, who knocked a 1-2 changeup up the middle. Wolters hit .170 during the regular season, but his first postseason hit meant that the Cubs’ run of three straight appearances in the National League Championship Series will not be extended to a fourth. Rockies reliever Scott Oberg struck out Terrance Gore, Javier Baez and Albert Almora Jr. in the bottom of the 13th to seal the victory. -- Chicago Tribune Kyle Schwarber and Jon Lester insist pain of 2018 can make Cubs better in '19 By Teddy Greenstein Surprise, surprise: The Cubs’ clubhouse was not a particularly sad place. Players hugged one another. Kyle Schwarber embraced Willson Contreras, telling him: “I’m so proud of you. You’re the best.” Both Schwarber and Jon Lester looked ahead, trying to find the bright side in the Rockies eliminating them 2-1 in the wild-card game Tuesday night at Wrigley Field so they couldn’t get to the National League Division Series. “This is a year that will make us better,” Schwarber said. “Right now it’s hard to swallow. No one is trying to brush this off. It happened. We accept it. And it will take some time. “But the big picture is that we’ve done a lot of (good) things here that the Cubs faithful should be very proud of and we’re expecting bigger things each and every year. So hang with us. Trust us, we’ll be back better than ever next year.” Lester said having a shorter postseason “can only benefit myself and our team. We’ve been going hard for the last three years. We’ve gone to the NLCS two out of the three and the World Series one out of three.

“I don’t want to be the guy who always looks at the positive of things but I feel like this can benefit our guys. KB (Kris Bryant) needs some rest; he needs to get his shoulder right. Javy (Baez) has had a long year with (the) MVP (talk). I’m sure the fans don’t want to hear it, but I feel like this could help us — unfortunately it can help us.” Lester pitched brilliantly in the wild-card game, escaping a first-inning jam with one run allowed and then mowing down the Rockies over five additional frames. “That was a helluva game and unfortunately we came out on the wrong side of it,” Lester said. “It was a 2-1 game; it’s not like we got blown out. “I think this will be good for our guys to get knocked down a little bit and to come into spring training a little hungrier than normal. We’ll be ready to go come February whatever the date is. It will be here in the blink of an eye.” -- Chicago Tribune Column: ESPN’s Alex Rodriguez lecturing Javier Baez on base-running rules? That’s hilarious. By Phil Rosenthal “The rules are the rules,” Alex Rodriguez said without a detectible trace of irony. And here’s hoping the memory of that moment from ESPN’s telecast Tuesday night is enough to bring a smile if not a chuckle to Cubs fans cranky from lack of sleep after their team’s 13-inning wild-card loss and early ouster from the postseason. Puzzling over why there was no runner’s interference call on Javier Baez for hugging Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado, the ESPN analyst who bent the rules like origami during his own playing career actually said, “The rules are the rules.” Come on. A-Rod lecturing Baez, the umpires or anyone else on rules? That’s hilarious. Baez’s tie-up did indeed prevent the possibility of a double play on sore-legged Willson Contreras’ grounder in the 11th inning that sent Daniel Murphy to second. It did seem curious the umpires didn’t see it that way. But A-Rod’s rap sheet on the base paths alone suggests the former Yankee is not the one who should be lecturing anyone over what he described as not simply a bear hug but “a Chicago Bears tackle.” Rodriguez is the guy who was called out for slapping the ball out of Red Sox pitcher Bronson Arroyo’s mitt en route to first during Game 6 of the 2004 American League Championship Series. A-Rod also is the guy the Blue Jays in 2007 accused of yelling “Mine!” as he ran past third baseman Howie Clark, causing Jorge Posada’s pop-up to fall and a Yankees run to score. The umpires let that one slide. Rodriguez claimed he only yelled, “Ha,” but shortstop John McDonald wanted a piece of him just the same. The point is Rodriguez wasn’t exactly a paragon of baseball virtue on the base paths and elsewhere. So maybe he isn’t the best person to be a stickler for adherence to the letter of any MLB law.

And it’s also funny — though not ha-ha funny — neither fellow analyst Jessica Mendoza nor play-by-play man Matt Vasgersian called him on it. Given his own shenanigans, “The rules are the rules” should have come out “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that.” Still learning: A-Rod, who now will be part of Fox’s postseason team, remains a work in progress as an analyst. Even when he seems to be saying something profound, it’s sometimes less so on closer examination. After the Cubs’ light-hitting Terrance Gore went after a bad pitch from Scott Oberg to strike out in the bottom of the 13th inning, Rodriguez said: “We talk about 3-2 being the money pitch and the most important pitch to dominate in October. It’s usually a chase pitch. The reason why, it’s called anxiety and, in October, it rises like the summer heat.” The kernel of value there is that nerves lead batters to chase pitches on 3-2 counts in big games. Period. A 3-2 pitch almost always is critical, especially late in a tight game, and referencing rising summer heat in October is a bit of a mixed metaphor, no? Oh, say, can you see? Weirdly, the ESPN “Sunday Night Baseball” crew of Vasgersian, Rodriguez and Mendoza seemed to be more on top of the game they called earlier this season from the bleachers at Wrigley Field than from the press box Tuesday night. They were slow to acknowledge defensive changes. They made little of pitches called strikes despite graphics showing them outside the zone. They too often seemed caught off-guard by umpire calls such as Drew Butera’s catcher’s interference that enabled the Cubs’ Tommy La Stella to reach in the seventh despite the fact La Stella’s swing knocked off Butera’s mitt. Sometimes they missed stuff or gave it short shrift simply because they were otherwise engaged. By the time Vasgersian thanked Rockies manager Bud Black for their mid-game interview at the start of the fourth inning, Trevor Story had lined out, Matt Holliday doubled and Ian Desmond was behind in the count. Tweet of the night – home division: Peter Sagal, host of NPR’s “Wait, Wait … Don’t Tell Me!,” tweeted early in the game that if he “were in the booth with A-Rod,” he would “say things like, ‘A strong start by Lester … would be a real shot in the butt to the Cubs.’ ” Tweet of the night – ballpark division: “I hope the fact that they’ve run out of peanuts at Wrigley doesn’t reflect a lack of confidence about moving on to the next series!” – David Axelrod, former senior advisor to President Obama, director of the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics and host of “The Axe Files” podcast. Tweet of the night – professional division: “Kind of terrifying that in a do-or-die game, Terrance Gore got as many plate appearances as Kyle Schwarber and Ian Happ combined.” – ESPN’s Keith Olbermann. Let the record show: ESPN's pregame analysts – David Ross, Mark Teixeira, Tim Kurkjian – all picked the Cubs to win.

Just asking: Anyone else bugged A-Rod often referred to the Cubs as the Cubbies? What’s your cosine? White Sox announcer Jason Benetti did a splendid job on play-by-play on the Statcast-infused alternative telecast on ESPN2. If only the dizzying array of numbers, stats and probabilities didn’t remind 73 percent of viewers of Algebra 2, there would have been a better than 7 percent chance of not switching back to Vasgersian, A-Rod and Mendoza. Who in Chicago leaves a tied playoff game? Vasgersian seemed surprised fans were staying to the end. Pictures better than 1,000 words: The most effective moments in the entire ESPN telecast were Cubs dugout shots. One was Cubs manager Joe Maddon trying to explain to starter Jon Lester that he was pulling him in favor of pinch hitter Ian Happ to lead off the bottom of the sixth. Lester’s posture as he grabbed his jacket and went to the clubhouse said all that needed to be said. The other was after the game, as the Rockies celebrated, and Contreras sat alone clutching his bats with his head down in despair. The final words: Pat Hughes, calling Cubs radio broadcast with Ron Coomer on WSCR-AM 670, couldn’t have been more businesslike calling the final out by Albert Almora Jr. “The right-hander Oberg delivers,” Hughes said. “Almora strikes out and the ball game is over and the Colorado Rockies win the wild-card game. The Rockies celebrate on the mound, and the Cubs’ season is over. Second straight day, Ron, we've seen the opponents celebrating, jumping up and down on the infield here at Wrigley – a very, very disappointing final couple of days to the Cubs’ season.” -- Chicago Tribune Terrance Gore: Wild-card loss 'hurts, but these guys next year will come back strong' By Teddy Greenstein Terrance Gore was a central figure in one of the many odd sequences in the NL wild-card game Tuesday. In the 13th and final inning, the left fielder tried to earn a free pass against right-hander Scott Oberg. Oberg’s 2-2 pitch came inside, striking home-plate umpire Chris Guccione. Gore remained at home plate for a few seconds before claiming the ball hit him and jogging to first. A replay review sent him back to the plate. “I felt like it grazed me a little,” Gore said, “but clearly, it didn’t. I was trying to get on base any way possible.” He could have taken a walk. Oberg threw a 3-2 slider that was low. Gore swung and missed. “That’s the last thing I thought he would actually throw me because the last thing he’d want to do is walk me,” Gore said. “I thought for sure he’d throw me a fastball. Smart play by him.”

Gore said it “felt good to actually contribute” by scoring the Cubs’ only run. He entered as a pinch runner for Anthony Rizzo, stole second and scored on Javier Baez’s double. “It hurts,” Gore said of the loss, “but these guys next year will come back strong.” -- Chicago Tribune Column: The only certainty for the Cubs is change, a necessity after they exit meekly from the playoffs By David Haugh At 12:05 a.m. Wednesday, the longest playoff game in Wrigley Field history ended — and what promises to be one of the coldest offseasons ever for the Cubs began. For a second straight day, a visiting team frolicked on the Cubs’ home turf, celebrating a milestone and creating an image to put on the 2019 cover of their media guide. This time it was the Rockies, 2-1 winners of the longest playoff game ever at Clark and Addison. A single in the 13th inning off Cubs pitcher Kyle Hendricks by Rockies catcher Tony Wolters, a .170 hitter, made the revelry possible. The Cubs left stunned, saddened and stumped about why they stopped hitting and what will come next with their season suddenly over. The only certainty seems to be change, a necessity after another dormant offensive effort let down a team whose pitching staff deserved better. In the Cubs’ final 22 innings, they managed two measly runs and nine hits. “We played our hearts out,’’ Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo said in the Cubs clubhouse. “It sucks losing this early. Give credit to the Rockies, but it’s tough.’’ On a forgettable night for everyone but the Rockies, the Cubs only had one at-bat worth remembering. It came from Javier Baez, who arrived at the ballpark Tuesday full of bravado, declaring the Cubs the best team in the National League despite their wild-card status and vowing to disprove doubters he couldn’t identify. “There’s no team that can beat us and they know that, that’s why they run their mouth a lot, because they know we’re the best,’’ Baez said before the wildest of wild-card games. Then Baez backed up his own big talk with the kind of action that made him an MVP candidate who feels emboldened to say whatever he wants. Baez stroked an 0-2 pitch off Adam Ottavino to score speedy pinch runner Terrance Gore from second base to tie a taut game at 1-1, reviving a home crowd of 40,151 that sensed doom. In a shrewd move by Cubs manager Joe Maddon, Gore had replaced Anthony Rizzo at first even after Rizzo tried waving off the dugout to stay in the game. On cue, Gore, the fastest man in Chicago — sorry, Tarik Cohen — stole second base to put himself in position for Baez to bring him home quicker than anyone could say did-you-see-that? The Cubs needed Javy’s heroics on a night nothing else worked against Rockies starter Kyle Freeland. A second-year player, pitching in his first playoff game and working on short rest, Freeland responded to the biggest moment of his career like a playoff veteran. He left leading 1-0 with two outs in the seventh after giving up four measly hits and striking out six on 82 pitches. The 25-year-old Denver native made

the Cubs pay by mixing speeds and mastering the strike zone, efficiently mowing down a reconfigured batting order. “I don’t know him, but I’d play behind him any time,’’ Rizzo said of Freeland. Before the tension mounted, Maddon revealed pregame that in the past couple of offseasons he bought two bikes from Freeland’s brother at a shop in Tampa, Fla., each time sharing how much he appreciated Kyle’s talents as a pitcher. After Freeland frustrated so many Cubs hitters, the next cycle Maddon buys from his brother should be on the house. A one-run deficit felt like five. Every swing-and-miss or soft grounder elicited a groan from fans who felt the anxiety build with every weak at-bat. Nothing underscores how prone the Cubs were to offensive ineptitude more than the statistic unearthed by NBC Sports Chicago researcher Christopher Kamka: In 39 regular-season games this season, the Cubs scored one or fewer runs. Only one team experienced futility more frequently — the Orioles, with 40. The Orioles lost 115 games, more than any team in baseball. The Cubs won 95, but their fan base will spend the winter lamenting such a talented team not being able to win a 96th. “As my buddy (Rays broadcaster) Dave Wills would say, we left too much chicken on the bone,’’ Maddon said. “We just could not take advantage.’’ Every big threat came courtesy of the Rockies, but every time the baseball gods smiled on the Cubs, they looked away. Right fielder David Dahl misplayed a Kris Bryant popup, putting runners on first and second with Rizzo at the plate. Almost as quickly as the first chant of “LET’S GO CUBS!” ended, Rizzo grounded into a deflating 4-6-3 double play. In the seventh, a catcher’s interference call during Tommy La Stella’s at-bat helped the Cubs load the bases against Ottavino. Then Maddon appeared to let metrics dictate his next move, which invited scrutiny. Maddon pinch-hit Jason Heyward, whose career playoff average of .153 was the lowest for any career major-leaguer with at least 100 postseason at-bats. Heyward’s success during the regular-season with two outs and the bases loaded – four hits in nine at-bats with one home run and 12 RBI – swayed Maddon. Meanwhile, Kyle Schwarber, an October legend with a .311 career average in the playoffs, sat on the bench and watched Heyward strike out. Schwarber striking out feebly against former Cubs closer Wade Davis in the ninth certainly weakened the argument. Playing three games in three cities three days in a row barely fazed the Rockies. The Cubs, meanwhile, played their 42nd game in the last 43 days like a bunch of guys who talked themselves into staying tired. Looking re-energized, the Rockies came out swinging against Cubs starter Jon Lester, with Charlie Blackmon and DJ LeMahieu leading off the game with a single and a double, respectively. The Cubs caught a home-field break when LeMahieu’s double got caught in the left-field ivy, forcing Blackmon to stop at third. An Arenado sacrifice fly scored Blackmon anyway. Lester settled down to escape the first with two strikeouts, relying mostly on effective off-speed stuff and the craft and guile that carried the lefty through 21 previous playoff starts. Over six innings, Lester gave up only four hits and one run, striking out nine and walking one in 86 pitches. In the baseball dictionary, you will find that outing under the definition of clutch.

“Sometimes you just have to take the bad with the good,’’ Lester said postgame. “Maybe we needed to get knocked down a peg or two to see nothing is given to us.’’ Make no mistake: Lester wanted this. When Lester struck out Matt Holliday with a runner on second and two outs to end the sixth, he pumped his fist and unleashed a primal yell in a show of emotion every Cubs fan felt. That would be the last batter Lester faced. Eight relievers followed in a game Maddon called “kind of an instant classic,’’ including Pedro Strop. It was Strop’s first appearance since Sept. 13 after pulling his hamstring running to first against the Nationals. After Strop struck out Ian Desmond to end the ninth with the go-ahead run in scoring position, he pointed to the dugout and exalted with joy. A city sighed with relief. But a familiar dull ache in the pit of everyone’s stomach, regrettably, would return four innings later. In an epic win-or-go-home game, the Cubs exited to the offseason. Everybody out. -- Chicago Tribune Column: For Cubs, you can't beat angst at the old ballpark By Paul Sullivan The Cubs game plan heading into Tuesday night’s wild-card game with the Rockies was simple enough. “Come out here and compete like maniacs,” second baseman Daniel Murphy said. It was the least the Cubs could do after putting their fans through the ringer this season, a six-month grind that had everyone on edge from start to finish. One day they were world beaters, and the next they looked beaten. The offense was on fire one game, until that fire was doused inexplicably the next. Everybody in, everyone out. You would think a lifetime of waiting for the Cubs finally to win a World Series would alleviate the anxiety level at Wrigley Field, but then you would be wrong. The angst returned in spades this year, and blowing the division lead to the Brewers in Game 163 only made things worse heading into the do-or-die wild-card game against the Rockies. But nothing prepared them for this night, or a game filled with pain, pleasure and heart palpitations, both real and feigned by Murphy himself. After Javier Baez’s game-tying double in the eighth created a seismic event at the ballpark, the Cubs and Rockies battled into extra innings before the Rockies prevailed 2-1 in 13 innings. Kyle Hendricks gave up three straight two-out singles in the 13th with Tony Wolters knocking in Trevor Story with the tie-breaking run.

The crowd of 40,151 was juiced from the outset, giving the ballpark a playoff atmosphere one day after Cubs fans let their counterparts from Wisconsin outshout them in a 3-1 loss to the Brewers in the tiebreaker game. The players were pumped up and making a commotion in the clubhouse beforehand, and Baez seemed particularly feisty during his pre-game news conference, saying if the Cubs played their game “there’s no team that can beat us.” “And they know that, so that’s why they run their mouth a lot, because they know we’re the best,” he added. “Even when we’re struggling we’re ahead of everybody.” Baez backed up his bold talk with the biggest hit of the season, scoring pinch-runner Terrance Gore, who came in to replace Anthony Rizzo and stole second on the first pitch. The Cubs had everything going for them heading into the wild-card game. Jon Lester, their October-tested starter was on the mound. The Rockies were physically drained from an overnight flight to Chicago from Los Angeles, where they had lost to the Dodgers in their own Game 163. And the Cubs were playing at home, where a packed house was on hand to try to help them get over the hump. The Cubs had won 95 games and led the National League in hitting in spite of all their woes, but the fact they had to settle for a wild-card game was a big blow to a club that had walked the walk the last three years. Now they had a chip on their collective shoulders the size of a ’68 Impala, and a chance to show everyone what they were made of. Maybe they had blown a five-game lead in the division, but they were still alive, which only nine other teams could say on Oct. 2. The script began the way it had to, with the Rockies taking a quick lead off Lester, who walked leadoff man Charlie Blackmon before issuing a ground rule double into the ivy to former Cub D.J. LeMahieu. Nolan Arenado’s sacrifice fly to center brought home the go-ahead run, and though Lester got out of the inning with no further damage, the Cubs were back in their familiar come-from-behind mode. Waiting on the Cubs offense to show up is as frustrating as waiting on a CTA bus in a downpour, and for much of the postseason opener it was more of the same. To microwave the offense, manager Joe Maddon shook up his lineup, sitting two of his key players in Kyle Schwarber and Jason Heyward against Rockies left-hander Kyle Freeland. Going with matchups, he inserted the slumping Albert Almora Jr., who batted .232 in the second half, and rookie David Bote, who hit .169 after Aug. 28. But after Almora singled to lead off the second, Freeland retired the next 12 hitters through the fifth inning, and the zeroes on the old center field scoreboard kept piling up as the night went on. When Lester struck out Matt Holliday to end the sixth with a man on second, he screamed and pumped his fist, as if he could transfer his energy to his teammates through osmosis. It may have worked. The Cubs caught a break in the sixth after Ian Happ walked leading off and Kris Bryant lofted a fly to right that David Dahl watched fall in for a single, putting two on with one out. Could the Cubs for once be the beneficiaries of a classic, made-for-October gaffe?

Not this time. Rizzo quickly grounded into an inning-ending double play, and the would-be storybook rally had crashed-and-burned. The Cubs loaded the bases in the seventh when Tommy LaStella reached on a catcher’s interference call, but with the crowd on its feet anticipating an October moment, pinch-hitter Jason Heyward struck out to end the inning. In a season of big highs and big lows, the Cubs saved the best for last. You knew they would. -- Chicago Tribune Wildly protracted wild card ends in disappointment for fans By Morgan Greene The Cubs may have played only one game in the postseason, but they made it last. Fans toggled between hope and dejection throughout 13 innings of the five-hour game. Many walked out of Wrigley Field in silence. “We’re exhausted,” said one fan, who shook his head and kept walking. With a spot in the National League Division Series up for grabs, the Cubs’ wild ride of a season came down to a do-or-die wild-card game against the Colorado Rockies at Wrigley Field. The Rockies came out on top, 2-1. Doubt was creeping in by the fourth inning with no runs scored, but finally, in the eighth, infielder Javier Baez hit a game-tying double. Rose Goodiron, 52, of Uptown, brought her daughter to her first Cubs game. “We’re sad. We want to see more baseball,” she said. “But it was good baseball.” Jack Spence, 29, of Old Town, was less forgiving. “It’s not fun to watch when you can’t score wins,” he said. Earlier Tuesday night at Murphy’s Bleachers on Sheffield Avenue, bargoers erupted in a collective scream as pitcher Jon Lester notched his ninth strikeout in the sixth inning. “Lester is pitching incredibly well, and I want the guys to back him up,” said Gaby Vitel, 24. Carol Frisoli, 58, a resident of the Jefferson Park neighborhood and “a bleachers fan from fifth grade on,” said she would be at Murphy’s until the game ends. “Hopefully we’ll be celebrating rather than mourning,” she said. Then outfielder Jason Heyward came up to bat with the bases loaded. Outside the Lucky Dorr patio, Dion Stammis, 27, of Griffith, Ind., clapped and muttered under his breath. He didn’t blink.

Heyward struck out. Stammis stared at the screen, silent. “Right now, I’m pretty depressed,” he said. “Lester was on fire, the defense was all there.” But “anything can happen with this team,” he said. And it did. Baez tied the game in the eighth. The crowd outside Wrigley screamed and strangers high-fived. Jason Brown, 25, of Naperville, let out a guttural yell and punched his arms into the air, his 2016 World Series champions jacket rising up with every fist pump. “Yeeeeeeeeeees!” “I feel amazing,” said Brown, out of breath. “That was the best. That was the best ever. Javier Baez came in clutch. Like always, like always. We’re tied. 1-1.” Brown was spinning in circles. His phone rang. “Let’s go!” he yelled into the phone. “We’re not done, we’re not done!” Before the game, dogs were out in force. Ted Devlin, 40, walked his dog Charlie counterclockwise around the field as part of their game-day ritual. “He’s good luck,” Devlin said about the treeing walker coonhound. “We did not walk counterclockwise yesterday.” After attending Monday’s losing game and fearing he would bring bad luck, Devlin decided to sit Tuesday’s game out. “I’m going to watch it with Charlie dog here,” he said. Christy Simpson, 37, of Wrigleyville, was walking her 4-year-old English bulldogs Badger and Angus. “They’ve got the team to be able to win,” she said. “It’s just going to be a matter of offense. ... I’m the eternal pessimist, but I’ve seen them in harder situations. I’m not ready for baseball to end.” Rockies fans were equally confident but not quite as abundant as Monday night’s Brewers fans. Rockies fan Andrew Globelnik, 22, put on his Trevor Story jersey and traveled from Connecticut for the game. He said his dad, from Denver, turned him into a huge Rockies fan. “I’m getting ready to get heckled,” he said. “ I know Chicago fans are passionate. But I embrace it.”

Father-son Cubs fans Doug Kluga, 52, and 8-year-old Mateo had on enough red and blue to rival any Rockies fan. “I really think they’re going to make the World Series,” said Doug Kluga, of St. John, Ind. “Me too,” said Mateo, who was counting on his favorite player, Javier Baez, to “hit a homer.” Mateo had to settle for a double. Will Defilipps and Gail Defilipps, both 77 and almost 30-year season ticket holders, said they came to Wrigley on a date in their sophomore year of high school. “It was the most expensive date I ever went on,” Will Defilipps said. “Because we never stopped going.” The Mount Prospect couple said it’s not over ’til it’s over. After Monday’s loss, the Tribune reported that when first baseman Anthony Rizzo was reminded the Cubs didn’t celebrate their postseason clinching with champagne, he said, “Tomorrow.” For Cubs fans, next year. -- Chicago Tribune MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred says decision to come 'shortly' on Addison Russell investigation By Paul Sullivan Cubs shortstop Addison Russell was ineligible for the wild-card roster after being placed on paid administrative leave as Major League Baseball continues its investigation of allegations of domestic abuse Russell’s former wife, Melisa Reidy Russell, made against him. That leave expires Wednesday and MLB will have to decide whether to extend it a second time, suspend Russell or clear him of the allegations, in which case Russell would be eligible for the National League Division Series if the Cubs were to beat the Rockies in Tuesday’s wild-card game. “Right now we’re kind of going day by day,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said before Tuesday night’s game at Wrigley Field. “I think we will have a final decision shortly, is the best I can (say). The most important thing is to take our time, make sure we have all the facts and make sure we try to make a decision at a point in time when it doesn’t affect roster decisions and things like that.” If the Cubs were to advance to the NL Division Series, they would have to set their 25-man roster by Thursday morning. Manfred said it was “conceivable” the decision would come down during the postseason. Russell has been away from the team since Sept. 23, when Reidy-Russell’s social media post alleging emotional and physical abuse was made public, leading to MLB’s decision. Cubs manager Joe Maddon said Tuesday the decision is “out of our hands” when asked if Russell was in baseball shape and able to play if cleared. “That would create conjecture if he would be able to play or not based on being in baseball shape or not,” he said. “But I don’t know anything regarding the investigation. We haven’t heard anything there yet.”

-- Chicago Sun-Times Successful? Not this Cubs season, team says: ‘We lost’ By Gordon Wittenmyer Cubs center fielder Albert Almora Jr. pushed any hint of emotion aside as he spoke after the Cubs’ 13-inning loss to the Rockies and sudden, jarring end to their season just after midnight Tuesday night. Despite the 2-1 loss in the National League wild-card game, certainly these Cubs could feel their 95-win season was a success – especially considering all the injuries and scheduling adversity. “No,” Almora said flatly. “We lost.” The Cubs aren’t going anywhere this October. And who knows what happens next year? But this, at least, is how far in four seasons these Cubs have traveled. “There’s a lot of positives,” Almora said. “But it’s not a success unless we win. That’s just the mindset we have here.” Four consecutive years in the playoffs for the first time certainly hasn’t erased the century that came before – much less assured anything for the next year, never mind beyond that. What will they get from Yu Darvish next year? Can Brandon Morrow stay healthy? Will Cole Hamels be back – and how effective? Who replaces the middle infield vacancy in the absence next year of Addison Russell and Daniel Murphy – beyond Javy Baez taking over at short all year? And what about a wildly erratic, on-again, off-again lineup that was increasingly off-again as the season wore on? The questions will pile higher before the 2019 team gets a chance to answer any of them. In the meantime, in a somber clubhouse of players in disbelief, one reality already was sinking in. “It sucks,” Almora said. That, too. But the anger and outrage expressed by fans since the Brewers caught the Cubs for the division lead – then beat them for the outright title Monday – seemed to be at least embraced, if not shared by some. Baez, who broke out this year to challenge for the league MVP award, drove in the Cubs’ only run Tuesday and got emotional about friends who may not be back (Pedro Strop is a free agent if the Cubs don’t pick up his $6.5 million option). And Baez also got fired up about the fact the Cubs never got on the extended roll they expected all season, never seemed to find that “rhythm of winning” they had in 2016 and for the second half last year.

“I think it was because we were paying attention to other teams because we [had guys] going down, because we lost so many people from our lineup that we were just paying attention to what other teams were doing,” he said. “And that’s not how it works. “Next year we’re going to come back and fight again. We’re doing to make that adjustment about that, because I’m going to make sure. I don’t want to hear nothing about other teams. Because we know what we’ve got.” This 2018 season a success? Or more of a disappointment? “It’s in between, to be honest,” Baez said. But either way, not nearly good enough. “In 2015 we were winning the wild-card game no matter what,” first baseman Anthony Rizzo said. “In 2018, I’d say fans were pissed that we were in the wild-card game because we had a chance to win the division. “We didn’t. But we’ve really flipped this culture here with the Chicago Cubs organization to being winners.” The record four consecutive postseason berths, including three consecutive years in the National League Championship Series before this time around. It included six elimination-game victories – and a third elimination loss Tuesday night. “Right now it’s hard to swallow for all of us,” Kyle Schwarber said. “But the big picture here is that we’ve done a lot of things in the past couple years to where the Cubs faithful should be very proud of. And we’re expecting bigger things each and every year. So hang with us. “Trust us: we’ll be back better than ever next year.” -- Chicago Sun-Times Should he stay or should he go? Cubs players have manager Joe Maddon’s back By Steve Greenberg Cubs manager Joe Maddon has said that seven to 10 years is the ideal amount of time to spend in any one job. With one year remaining on the five-year deal he signed heading into 2015, will Maddon, 64, make it into that sweet spot? For that matter, will he be steering the Cubs ship in 2019? There has been some speculation that a quick exit from the postseason could signal the end of his time in Chicago. Certainly, an anti-Maddon sentiment exists among a segment of Cubs fans. The man tinkers endlessly. Except for when he sticks with a guy for too long. Look, he isn’t perfect. After a 2-1 loss to the Rockies in the NL wild-card game, one thing that became abundantly clear: Maddon’s players have his back.

“I just don’t see where he’s going to get heat from,” Anthony Rizzo said. “I think he’s managed his [expletive] off this year.” Rizzo and teammates mentioned the injuries to Yu Darvish, Kris Bryant, Brandon Morrow and Pedro Strop. There were other hurdles and pitfalls along the way, too, yet the team managed to win 95 games and nearly capture the NL Central title. “We still figured out a way to win,” Rizzo said. “That’s all credit to him. Without his leadership here, guys aren’t playing the way they play. [Rookie] David Bote is not coming up here and playing the way he plays without Joe’s leadership.” Willson Contreras credited Maddon with helping to create a family atmosphere and a loving environment. Jay Baez expressed that even further. “We love our manager,” Baez said. “The way he talks to us and the way he lets us do whatever we want, be us out there, I think has a lot to do with what we do out there. Because we’ve got to be ourselves.” Kris Bryant made the point that more bad things than good things are being said about a lot of the Cubs — and about people in general. “But that’s the world we live in now,” Bryant said. “Joe always does a great job with us. He always has our best interests in mind. We won 95 games. I mean, that’s pretty impressive.” They’ve done a bit more than that on Maddon’s watch, of course. There have been 387 regular-season games won in four years and — for the only time in franchise history — four straight postseason appearances. And you might’ve heard about that whole World Series deal in 2016. Before the Cubs went their separate ways in the wee hours, their season suddenly over, they gathered and did a round of shots. After that were lots of hugs. “It was very sincere,” Maddon said. “It means something. It’s about the culture that we have created. This is four years in a row in the playoffs. This is something we really believe we can sustain.” But how much longer will Maddon’s guiding hand be a part of the equation? -- Chicago Sun-Times One and done: Anemic hitting leads to 2-1, 13-inning loss, quick exit for Cubs By Gordon Wittenmyer The Cubs had the right pitcher on the mound to start the game. They had the bullpen guys they wanted lined up for the late innings – and extra innings. But once again it came down to the Cubs’ on-again, off-again, flickering lineup in the high-stakes, loser-out wild-card game against the Rockies on Tuesday night at Wrigley Field. And when .170-hitting backup catcher Tony Wolters singled up the middle with two out in the 13th inning off the Kyle Hendricks – the Cubs best pitcher in September – it all flickered out.

Wolters lifted the Rockies to a 2-1 victory in the longest postseason game in Wrigley history – sending the Cubs home earlier than they’ve finished a season since 2014. The team with the most regular-season victories and postseason victories in baseball the previous three years are suddenly done after managing just two runs in 22 innings over two losses to the Brewers (in Monday’s division tiebreaker) and Rockies. “This is four years in a row in the playoffs,” manager Joe Maddon said after a round of shots and hugs in the clubhouse following the game. “This is something we really believe we can sustain. We just got a little bit challenged offensively at the end of the year; obviously that hurt us. “But as a group and [with the [talent and the way they interact I could not ask for more.” Until Wolters’ hit, the Rockies were 0-for-8 with men in scoring position, leaving nine men on base, and hadn’t scored in 12 innings. But you should have seen the other guys. A Cubs lineup that entered the game having scored exactly one run – on a solo homer – since Sunday afternoon’s sixth inning left 10 on base, going 1-for-6 with men in scoring position. In their nine games at home over the past nine days, the Cubs went 4-5 – scoring 1 or none in the five losses. “You guys have to realize, too, these guys are getting paid to get us out,” Schwarber said. “It’s unfortunate it ended up in this manner. But you have to see all the positives that happened this year, too. “There’s a ton of guys on this team who were unbelievable throughout the whole year, to where it just didn’t end up being right.” It wasn’t until there were two out in the bottom of the eighth on Tuesday night that the Cubs scored the run that ultimately created the longest postseason game in Wrigley Field history – both by innings and time. And it took the last man on their bench, and cost Anthony Rizzo for the rest of the game to do it. Rizzo’s single up the middle off Adam Ottavino led to the tying run – after Maddon used the fastest guy in the place to pinch-run for him. Terrance Gore quickly stole second place, and the Cubs’ MVP this year, Javy Baez, delivered his biggest hit of the week – a legged-out double to center to score Gore easily. But when Almora followed with an inning-ending strikeout, the flickering continued. Rizzo’s spot came up twice more in the game with Gore striking out both times, including leading off a 1-2-3 13th. “You come out of the game there and Terrance Gore scores, he steals a base – you can’t really question it,” said Rizzo, who was seen telling Maddon “no, no, no, no” at the time.

“Obviously I don’t ever want to come out of a baseball game, but at that point you put your cheerleading pom-poms on.” The lefty-lefty pitching rematch that featured big-game Cubs starter Jon Lester against postseason rookie Kyle Freeland on short rest turned into a classic October duel. Freeland, a 17-game winner for the Rockies this year, got the best of it for 6 2/3 scoreless innings. Freeland, who lost his only start against the Cubs (3-2 in April), allowed only four hits, all singles, and one walk. And despite putting the leadoff man on three times, he didn’t pitch with a Cub in scoring position until sixth. That lasted one batter and a double play. “We’ve got to go out there and compete, and if we do that, there’s no team that can beat us,” Baez said, “and they know that. So that’s why they run their mouth a lot, because they know we’re the best. Even when we’re struggling, we are the head of everybody.” They certainly competed. Hitting was another thing. Lester did his job on this day, even as Twitter clamored for more when he was lifted at 86 pitches for pinch-hitter Ian Happ leading off the bottom of the sixth. His lone walk cost him the only run he allowed. That came to the first hitter of the game, Charlie Blackmon. Former Cub DJ LeMahieu, the 2016 batting champion, then drove a ball through the gap in left-center that appeared to drive home Blackmon – until Bryant threw up his hands in left with the ball in the ivy. The ground-rule double put runners at second and third for Nolan Arenado, who followed with a sacrifice fly to center. LeMahieu took third on the play and was stranded there as Lester struck out Trevor Story and Matt Holliday to end the inning. After the double, Lester retired 18 of the final 21 batters he faced, including seven more strikeouts. The Cubs fell to 6-3 in elimination games under Maddon. -- Chicago Sun-Times A season without a World Series appearance by the Cubs is a disappointment By Rick Morrissey The tweets and the calls to radio talk shows started rolling in Tuesday morning, well before the Cubs’ wild-card game later that night: No matter what happened, they said, the season was a success.

It was predictable, maybe even understandable. It was fans’ defense system at work. Their team had won 90 or more games for the fourth straight season so, by that definition, you couldn’t call the team a disappointment. Perhaps they were bracing themselves for the worst against the Rockies at Wrigley Field. The worst arrived after midnight, with Colorado winning 2-1 in 13 innings, stopping the Cubs in their tracks in the National League wild-card game. We need to start talking about what the goal is here, or what it should be. We’ve either lost sight of it or never had it properly in our sights. Given what the Cubs have accomplished the past several years, how much money they have at their disposal and the template they follow (the Red Sox), anything less than a trip to the World Series should be considered a disappointment. There has been a shift in thinking in Chicago since team president Theo Epstein rolled into town, and that’s a very good thing. The 2016 World Series changed everything for the better. But the conversation should be about whether you’re happy with a single World Series title. If you are, fine. That one swig from the champagne bottle offered quite a buzz. But if the idea is greatness, and it should be, then one is not enough. Whenever the Red Sox and the Yankees fall short of that annual goal, few people who work for them or root for them say, “Nice job!’’ Those two franchises don’t talk about taking advantage of seven-year competitive windows. They don’t talk about windows at all. If they fail, they practice self-mortification in the offseason and then it’s World Series or bust the next year. That’s where the city should be with the Cubs. And if you think I’m holding the franchise to an unrealistic standard, know that it’s the Cubs who raised those expectations. They’re the ones who put us here. And I can’t emphasize this enough: It’s where everyone should want to be. If you’re worried about making Epstein, manager Joe Maddon or the players feel bad for winning 95 games this season, don’t. You certainly can’t feel as bad as Epstein does when his team falls short of the goal. Of all people, he knows where the Cubs stand in the bigger picture and he knows what they’ve frittered away when they don’t make the World Series. And even though Maddon took time before Tuesday’s game to discuss the difficulties his team encountered this season, which included injuries and what he considered to be an exceptionally grueling schedule, he knows what the target is every season. “It’s always disappointing when you don’t reach your ultimate goal, which it should be on an annual basis, and that’s to play the last game of the season and win it,’’ Maddon said. “Even last year, getting to the NLCS for three consecutive years, the two years we did not win the World Series, we consider those disappointments.’’ Perhaps some fans got complacent after the success that followed 108 years of disappointment. But that long stretch of futility shouldn’t be the measuring stick by which we judge these latter-day Cubs. If it is, then you’ll be sure to die happy, even if you die 30 years from now.

Tell me, Cubs fans: Are White Sox fans, 13 years after they won a World Series, content because they had waited 88 years for one? I don’t think so. They’ll tell you they wished the club had accomplished more in the years after the title. I’ve heard this a lot from Cubs fans: All we want is a chance to get to the World Series every season. And by that measure, their team has been great. It’s the sustained success Epstein talked about when he arrived in Chicago in 2011. But at what point is that not enough? At what point, do you start measuring yourself by World Series appearances? Especially with a core of Javy Baez, Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant? The Royals, with a World Series appearance in 2014 and a World Series title in 2015, have more recent World Series success than the Cubs have had. Few people would say that they’d prefer the Royals’ situation over the Cubs, but the point is that you have to take advantage of the chances put in front of you. The Cubs have had a lot of chances in a short amount of time and figure to have more. This isn’t a eulogy for a season. It’s a call for an attitude adjustment. The Cubs had the third-highest Opening Day payroll ($181.8 million) this year. That’s another reason to expect much from the Cubs. No, payroll doesn’t necessarily correlate to success, but it does show a franchise’s intentions. The intention in what chairman Tom Ricketts is willing to spend is a World Series every year. I wonder if the disappointment over this season will increase their desire to pursue Manny Machado. It’s what a hungry, talent-heavy franchise would do. There was a lot of fire in this team. Before Tuesday’s game, Baez said that if the Cubs play hard, “there’s no team that can beat us, and they know that, so that’s why they run their mouth a lot, because they know we’re the best. Even when we’re struggling, we are the head of everybody.’’ Who’d been running his mouth? “Everybody, fans,’’ he said. “Who cares? I don’t pay attention to it, but it’s around us, and if we pay attention, we get in their trap.’’ To recap, Javy doesn’t pay attention to what anybody says! Put Baez in the category of people who aim high, always. Time for more people to join him. -- Chicago Sun-Times Cubs’ bats didn’t back him up, but starter Jon Lester was more than good enough By Steve Greenberg The ball rose off the bat of Rockies right fielder David Dahl, who had six home runs in the last week of September. As it descended, it appeared — as sure as the deepening darkness beyond the Wrigley Field bleachers — to be ticketed for the basket in left-center. Somehow, it stayed in the yard. Center fielder Albert Almora Jr. leaped back into the wall and emerged from the ivy having made a crowd-pleasing catch. Lester, the Cubs’ 34-year-old ace, got a sudden injection of life.

He was going to stay in this National League wild-card game awhile. He was going to do his thing. He was going to deliver a near-vintage Lester performance on a night when the Cubs desperately needed at least that much from the six-year, $155 million man they brought to town before the 2015 season. Unfortunately for him and his teammates, the Cubs lost to the Rockies 2-1 in 13 innings, ending their postseason after only one game. “This year sucks,” Lester said. “This is a sting right now. But we’ve got to still find a way to look at the positives of things.” The Lester-Dahl sequence took place in the second inning of a boom-or-bust game the Rockies led 1-0. They had scored in the first when Charlie Blackmon walked, former Cub DJ LeMahieu doubled and NL home-run champ Nolan Arenado hit a sacrifice fly. At that point, Lester’s standing in the game was shaky, especially with fellow starters Cole Hamels and Kyle Hendricks prepared to pitch out of the bullpen. What Lester did, though, was buckle down as he has done in the postseason throughout his career — and as he has done, memorably, a time or two with the Cubs. After LaMahieu’s double, Lester retired 15 of the next 17 Rockies hitters. And by the time he was pulled after six innings, he had struck out nine, equaling his season high. Throughout a season in which Lester’s strikeout total dropped to a career low, there was talk of an aging lefty left with no choice but to pitch to contact and count on all the gloves surrounding him. On this night, he took care of much it himself. “Good pitching will always shut down good offense,” he said. “I’d like to say that [about] myself tonight. That’s a good offense on the other side. I gave up one run.” It was along the lines of what his teammates had expected. ‘‘I think [he has] a presence,’’ Kris Bryant said heading into the game. ‘‘It’s the name behind the person. You know Jon Lester on the mound during the playoffs, he’s going to bring his A-game, and it’s going to be tough for the other team.’’ Lester was pulled for pinch hitter Ian Happ leading off the sixth on a night when he clearly had another inning or more in his arm. But what’s a team that has struggled so severely on offense to do? It was the right move — the only move — at the time. Still, it felt as though Lester, the Cubs’ all-time leader in postseason innings pitched, deserved better. He came into the game with 148 postseason innings pitched, the most among active pitchers. His nine victories ranked third. His 22nd start tied him with the Yankees’ CC Sabathia for first. Young Rockies left-hander Kyle Freeland was outstanding, at times dazzling. But Lester more than held up his end of things. A surprise? Again, no. ‘‘It’s Jonny Lester,’’ Anthony Rizzo said Monday. ‘‘He’s pitched in a few big games before. . . . We’ll be leaning on him hard.’’ That, they did. And he had no trouble handling the weight of the moment.

With two years left on his contract, Lester believes he has plenty left in the tank. “Got to,” he said. “I ain’t going anywhere unless they trade me or release me, and they can’t trade me. Unless they tell me to go home, I’m here. You guys are stuck with me. “I mean, I feel good. Tonight was probably the best physically, and as far as pitch command, that I felt in a long time.” -- Chicago Sun-Times Commissioner: MLB could rule on Addison Russell case this month By Gordon Wittenmyer Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said before Tuesday’s wild-card game that the investigation into accusations of domestic violence against Cubs shortstop Addison Russell is close to completion. A decision on a possible suspension could be made within weeks, if not days. “Right now we’re kind of going day by day,” Manfred said. “I think we will have a final decision shortly. That’s the best I can [say]. “The most important thing is to take our time, make sure we have all the facts and sure we try to make a decision at a point in time that it doesn’t affect roster decisions and things like that,” he added. A decision before the end of the postseason? “It is conceivable,” said Manfred, who declined to elaborate. Russell has been on paid administrative leave and prohibited from being at the ballpark with the team since the latest allegations surfaced in a blog post by his ex-wife two weeks ago. The latest extension on the leave expires Tuesday, with a decision on at least trying to extend the leave one more time coming Wednesday. It becomes a moot point if the Cubs are eliminated. Regardless, Russell is not expected play again for the Cubs – who shopped him in trade talks last winter as baseball’s investigation lingered with little process. Major League Baseball began investigating Russell last summer after a friend of ex-wife Melisa Reidy-Russell published a since-deleted instagram post accusing Russell of physically abusing his wife. Neither his wife nor the friend were willing to cooperate with MLB investigators last season, but that has changed in recent weeks, sources say. In addition to the blog two weeks ago, Reidy-Russell spoke publicly on the topic this past week for the first time in an interview with ESPN. --

Daily Herald 'I don't feel like we lost this; I feel like they beat us': Cubs season ends in wild-card game By Bruce Miles There was no champagne flowing in the Chicago Cubs clubhouse after Tuesday night turned to Wednesday morning. But there were plenty of tears flowing, plenty of hugs and plenty of handshakes. For the second day in a row, the Cubs watched another team celebrate on Wrigley Field. On Monday, it was the Milwaukee Brewers winning Game 163 of an extended regular season to capture the National League Central title by 1 game. Tuesday night and shortly after midnight Wednesday, the Colorado Rockies jumped around the field after beating the Cubs 2-1 in 13 innings to win the one-game National League wild-card playoff. The Rockies move on to the National League division series against the Brewers. Tony Wolters, the Rockies' third catcher of the night and a .170 hitter this season, singled home the winning run against Cubs pitcher Kyle Hendricks, the second Cubs starting pitcher to work in relief. The Rockies scored the run after two were out as Trevor Story and Gerardo Parra singled ahead of Wolters. The Cubs made the postseason for the fourth straight year, but this was this group's earliest exit. Ace Jon Lester started for the Cubs and worked 6 innings of 4-hit, 1-run ball, that run coming in the first inning. Lester was outdueled by Rockies Lefty Kyle Freeland, who pitched 6⅔ innings and gave up 4 hits and no runs. "I don't feel like we lost this; I feel like they beat us," said Lester, who was 18-6 during the regular season. "We got ourselves in this situation. We played our hearts out tonight. That's a tough game." Lester said there was a reason for the emotion in the clubhouse afterward. "I feel like the bonding that goes on here is different from anywhere else," he said. "You got guys in here that are unique. I feel like this is my family. You see a lot of emotion here. I don't think anybody's moving on from this." As has happened much of the way down the stretch, the Cubs' offense faltered again. They had only 3 hits against the Brewers in Monday's 3-1 loss. Over 13 innings Tuesday night, they were outhit 11-6. "It's happened," said manager Joe Maddon. "We put ourselves in that position often. Even the games against the Pirates to get to this point, we didn't score a whole lot. "We have been fighting this, and I want to believe and I do believe that you're going to see a lot of these guys rebound more offensively next year because they're very talented and they're young and they're not hurt." The Rockies scored a run in the first inning off Lester, who minimized what could have been a bigger inning.

Charlie Blackmon led off the game with a walk and went to second on a double to left-center by former Cub DJ LeMahieu. The dangerous Nolan Arenado lifted a sacrifice fly to center field, but Lester bore down to strike out both Trevor Story and Matt Holliday. Cubs batters did little with Freeland. They picked up singles in each of the first two innings and got nothing until pinch hitter Ian Happ walked while batting for Lester in the sixth. After Ben Zobrist struck out, Kris Bryant's flyball to right dropped for a single. But Anthony Rizzo went first-pitching swinging and grounded into a 6-4-3 double play. Lester settled down well after the first inning. Javier Baez, the Cubs' MVP candidate, tried to bring the flailing offense to life. He did so in the eighth, and he also brought the crowd of 40,151 to its feet. Rizzo singled with two outs. Terrance Gore pinch ran for Rizzo. Baez came up and legged out an RBI double to left center as the crowd chanted "Javy, Javy" and "MVP, MVP." But that wasn't enough, as the two teams slogged it out until the 13th. In the bottom of the 13th, Rockies reliever Scott Oberg struck out the side to end the game. In the end, the Cubs wound up using eight relief pitchers, including Hendricks and Cole Hamels. "It was tough," Baez said. "It was a great game from both sides. We fought to the end." Before the game, Baez was asked about the Cubs offense, which limped home during September. "We've got to stop worrying about other teams," Baez said. "We've got to go out there and have fun. We've got to go out there and compete. If we do that, there's no team that can beat us, and they know that, so that's why they run their mouth a lot, because they know we're the best. Even when we're struggling, we are the head of everybody." Baez wouldn't specify whom he meant. "It doesn't matter -- like everybody," he said. "Everybody. Fans. Who cares? I don't pay attention to it, but it's around us, and if we pay attention, we get in their trap." In the end the Cubs snared themselves in their own trap of not hitting. "We've had plenty of opportunities," Maddon said. "I'm not here to denigrate anybody. Our work's put in, the hay's in the barn, everybody cares. It just didn't play out this way offensively." -- Daily Herald Manfred: No timetable on finishing Russell investigation By Bruce Miles Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred told reporters Tuesday that MLB is going "day by day" in its investigation of domestic violence charges against Cubs shortstop Addison Russell, who remains on administrative leave.

"I think we will have a final decision shortly, is the best I can (say)," Manfred said. "The most important thing is to take our time, make sure we have all the facts and make sure we try to make a decision at a point in time when it doesn't affect roster decisions and things like that." Cubs manager Joe Maddon said he had not heard a word about Russell. Strop makes playoff roster, Edwards off: The Cubs had one up and one down with the bullpen for Tuesday night's wild-card game at Wrigley Field. Reliever Pedro Strop, who was aiming to be back for the playoffs, found himself on the 25-man roster. On the downside, the Cubs left reliever Carl Edwards Jr., off the wild-card roster with what they said was right-forearm discomfort, which he experienced after this past Sunday's game against the Cardinals. Edwards has been having problems with his command in recent games. "Carl had a little bit of like a strain in the forearm the other day, so we wanted to be very careful right now, and we thought if we did not push him right now, he would be available for the next series," Maddon said. Strop has been out since straining his left hamstring running the bases in Washington on Sept. 13. "All in," he said in the dugout before the game. "That's all I can say. All in like I've always been. Even in the regular season, every time I go in there, I go with passion and with my heart, and I always to try to give my team an opportunity to win. "My goal since I got hurt was just be ready for the playoffs. I was working so hard and doing whatever I could to help that thing to heal so as quickly as possible so I would be able to pitch in the playoffs." Although Maddon never officially proclaimed Strop the closer, he had been working in that role since Brandon Morrow went out for the season in July with a biceps injury. Putting it behind them: Both the Cubs and the Rockies lost games Monday to get into the wild-card game. The Cubs lost to the Brewers at Wrigley Field while the Rockies fell to the Dodgers in Los Angeles. So neither team really go to "celebrate" a postseason berth following their 163rd game of the regular season. "I'm not disappointed," said Cubs shortstop Javier Baez, who joined center fielder Albert Almora in meeting the media before Tuesday's game. "We had a good game. You know, we fought. Everybody thinks we struggled because our bullpen is down, but like I said (Monday), we only had 3 hits the whole game. If we hit and score runs, our pitcher doesn't have to worry about throwing more strikes or whatever or the bullpen don't have to come and be with pressure I don't think. Historic Javy: Javier Baez became the first player in franchise history to reach 40 doubles, 30 home runs and 20 stolen bases in the same season. Baez led the National League with 111 RBI and is only the third middle infielder in club history to reach 111 RBI and the first since Ernie Banks drove in 117 runs in 1960.

Banks reached 111 RBI four times as a middle infielder while Rogers Hornsby owns the club record for a middle infielder with 149 in 1929. -- The Athletic Why you’ll always remember the Cubs-Rockies wild-card game, even if you’d rather forget it By Lauren Comitor On paper, the National League wild-card game doesn’t seem that memorable, that momentous. Sure, the Colorado Rockies, who hadn’t made it past the wild-card game in this decade, slayed the beast that was the Cubs, who ran out of steam and failed to live up to expectations in an uncharacteristically early postseason exit. A 13-inning game with only three total runs scored? Sounds like a potential snoozer, and not just because the game ended way past everyone’s bedtime. Of course it wasn’t, and wild was only the tip of the iceberg of adjectives one could use to describe the Rockies’ 2-1 win that spanned two days and nearly five hours (an actual historically long postseason contest) and shaved unknowable years off all of our lives. Just over 40,000 fans packed Wrigley Field to watch 15 total pitchers take the mound to face 30 total batters, who made 102 total plate appearances — only three of which yielded runs. For a game that had few lead changes, Tuesday night/Wednesday morning’s game felt pretty back-and-forth, full of momentum swings, despite the Cubs offense’s struggles. But it felt different from the dugout. “This one wasn’t that much up and down,” Cubs outfielder Jason Heyward said. “There have been some (other playoff games) that have been more up and down, a really big moment and then kind of wind taken out of the sail…I feel like we were kind of pretty even all game, I mean, what was the score, 2-1? You know, so it wasn’t one of those, 2-1 over 13 innings, so it wasn’t one of those that was that crazy, I guess, but it’s still postseason baseball, it’s still fun, there’s still adrenaline, and of course we want to win.” Baseball can be maddening, or Maddoning, as Cubs fans can attest. But there is a reason you sit through those 102 plate appearances on the off chance that a few of them could turn into runs. Because often, you get rewarded by something ridiculous happening, which is exactly what happened often throughout the game. There was a ball disappearing into the ivy in the first inning. Albert Almora Jr. expertly scaling the wall in the second to rob David Dahl of extra bases. There was Dahl in the sixth, giving the scuffling Kris Bryant a gift of a single on a badly misplayed pop-up to right field. That put two on for Anthony Rizzo, who grounded into a double play on the first pitch he saw. There was Willson Contreras, who’s struggled more than probably anyone else on offense of late, pimping walks and flipping bats just because he can.

There was Tommy La Stella, pinch-hitter extraordinaire, reaching base on catcher’s interference, something he did twice in one game against the Phillies on June 7, and five times this season (according to his biographer Jesse Rogers). There was Anthony Rizzo, the heart and soul of the Cubs, whose two-out single in the eighth inning prompted Joe Maddon to pinch-run Terrance Gore, who would eventually score the Cubs’ only run after stealing second base. “I knew that guy,” Gore said of pitcher Adam Ottavino. “I mean, we go in there and study the pitchers and I knew he was slow, and I knew (catcher Drew) Butera, literally when he went up there and talked to him, I knew he probably said, ‘Dude, just throw a strike, like you’re probably not going to throw him out, but just get the batter.'” Butera didn’t even bother throwing to second, and Gore came around on Báez’s RBI double, making it from second base to home in 6.36 seconds, according to Statcast. It was worth putting Gore in, obviously, but that meant the Cubs were without Rizzo for the final five innings of the game. “It’s just, you know, coming out of the game there, Terrance Gore scores, he steals the base, you can’t really question it,” Rizzo said. “Obviously I don’t ever want to come out of a baseball game, but at that point, you go and put your cheerleading pom-poms on, and cheer the boys on.” There was even cheering in the press box, when Kerry Wood and two of his kids stuck their heads in to watch the Cubs threaten in the bottom of the sixth before singing the seventh-inning stretch. There was Daniel Murphy, who had already turned a heads-up double play in the top of the eighth, tasked with taking over first base, a position he’s played before but never for the Cubs. Not exactly known for his defensive prowess, Murphy made an impressive snag on a short-hopper for an out, breathing an obvious sign of relief after the play. There were a couple former Cubs who came through for the Rockies in relief (remember Chris Rusin?), and a couple former Cubs providing comic relief on Twitter. There was Pedro Strop, making his first appearance since pulling his hamstring on Sept. 13, striking out Ian Desmond looking to cap a 16-pitch ninth inning and then vigorously celebrating as only Pedro Strop can. There was…a hug? Leave it to Báez to be involved in one of the oddest displays of affection between opposing players on a baseball field. Instead of applying a normal tag on Báez on a fielder’s choice in the 11th inning, Nolan Arenado wrapped him up in a brief hug. Rockies manager Bud Black briefly tried to argue interference, but the only thing being interfered with there was our reluctance to feel feelings about baseball. There was Gore, again, with the game on the line, but in a position he has quite literally never been in his career: at the plate in a postseason game, not scoring, but batting. In five seasons in the majors, Gore has 16 at-bats, and a .063/.211/.063 line to show for them. His one hit came on Sept. 8. So you could say that leading off the 13th inning, with the Cubs down to their final three outs, was out of his comfort zone.

Rockies reliever Scott Oberg had Gore at a 2-2 count, then threw a 96 mph fastball up and in that bounced off…something, and left home plate umpire Chris Guccione shaken up. But did it hit Gore, putting the tying run on base? “Uh, it might’ve grazed me a little bit, maybe my hairs or something, I don’t know,” he said. It certainly didn’t look like it did, and Gore didn’t sell it very well. He said during the awkward lull when Guccione was being attended to, he looked over at Maddon, who waved his arms for him to just head to first. But Gore was sent back, and struck out swinging on a slider low and away. “I was trying to get on base in any way possible, and like I said, the last thing I thought he would actually throw me would be a slider, because he probably did not want me to be on first,” Gore said. The winning run was scored when Rockies’ third catcher, Tony Wolters, a .170 hitter who hadn’t had a hit since Sept. 10, singled off Kyle Hendricks, who entered the game with one out in the 12th inning. And if you think this game couldn’t have been weirder, it could have — ESPN’s Pedro Gomez reported that had the Cubs managed to load the bases in the 13th, Mike Montgomery would’ve taken the at-bat. His batting average in the postseason? .500. -- The Athletic Change is coming to a Cubs team that failed to live up to its own great expectations By Patrick Mooney “We struggled the whole year,” Javier Báez said, delivering a blunt assessment of a 95-win team, cutting through a lot of the happy talk around the Cubs and using the past tense after a dramatic 2-1 loss to the Colorado Rockies in the National League wild-card game. “The whole year.” Reporters and cameramen crowded around Báez at his locker after the longest postseason game in Wrigley Field history both in terms of innings (13) and running time (4 hours, 55 minutes). It began at 7:09 p.m. Tuesday with Jon Lester on the mound and ended at 12:05 a.m. Wednesday when Albert Almora Jr. struck out swinging in a three-pitch at-bat against Scott Oberg, the fifth reliever out of Colorado’s bullpen. It was so quiet that all the way up in the press box you could hear Rockies staffers clapping as they walked out onto the field to join the players in the celebration. The 2018 Cubs – a group that wanted to be judged on whether or not they rode in another parade down Michigan Avenue – technically made it to the third day of October. “It sucks,” Almora said. While trying to come down from a pulsating wild-card game, it’s hard to make sense of this season or tell whether this team actually overachieved or underachieved. The Cubs had such a businesslike approach that they didn’t even pop champagne bottles after clinching a playoff spot, instead doing a private toast and a round of whiskey shots, waiting for the division title the Milwaukee Brewers ripped away from them during Monday’s Game 163 at Wrigley Field. President of baseball operations Theo Epstein saved the pitching staff by trading for Cole Hamels and Jesse Chavez after overestimating Yu Darvish, Tyler Chatwood and Brandon Morrow. Credit Joe Maddon

for maintaining a positive, productive environment amid all the injuries while also wondering if the manager could have drawn more out of the players the Cubs expected to markedly improve this year. “Successful?” Jason Heyward said, repeating back part of a question. “Well, I’ll tell you the way we go about things here. We didn’t pop any bottles this year. We had plenty of toasts to things and we don’t take postseasons for granted. We don’t take winning for granted. But our mindset is World Series or no.” Elimination games have consequences. The last time the Cubs played as a wild card, Jake Arrieta trolled Pittsburgh Pirates fans on Twitter and silenced the blackout crowd at PNC Park with a complete-game shutout in 2015. That allowed a young team to gain so much confidence, take down the rival St. Louis Cardinals in the next playoff round and create payroll flexibility with a run into the NLCS. Getting swept by the New York Mets – the Cubs had no answers for Mr. October Daniel Murphy and their power pitching – made the entire organization hungry for more. It led to a spending spree on free agents that totaled almost $290 million. It centered the clubhouse with a sense of purpose that drove the Cubs into the 10th inning of an unforgettable World Series Game 7 in Cleveland. This feels like a franchise in the “Now What?” section of the Cubs Way manual. Because where Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer used to talk about building toward a perennial contender, watching prospects grow up right in front of your eyes and completing the greatest quest left in professional sports, there is now a lot of talk about big-game experience, signs of stunted player development and traces of Maddon fatigue setting in, even though the manager might have done his best work with this group and should not be viewed as an easily replaceable part. It’s not like Maddon lost the clubhouse. Anthony Rizzo said Maddon “managed his ass off” this year and thought it was “too early to say” if major changes are coming. “I love this team,” Rizzo said. “I loved this team from Day 1, all the additions. We lost. We lost to teams that were better than us. That’s all you can say. We just fell short.” The Cubs overcame free-agent miscalculations, waves of injuries and boom-and-bust cycles with their young hitters to advance to the postseason for the fourth consecutive year, a franchise record and a remarkable achievement. But the Cubs couldn’t erase all of their issues with game planning, roster churn and playoff guts. The Cubs were so desperate for offense that Rizzo became a cheerleader, watching the wild-card finish from the dugout in a blue hooded sweatshirt because Terrance Gore pinch-ran for him and scored on Báez’s two-out, game-tying double in the eighth inning. Kris Bryant (1-for-6 with three strikeouts) never quite looked like the same feared hitter after hurting his left shoulder in late May. In a sudden-death situation, the Cubs didn’t start their $184 million outfielder (Heyward) or an October legend (Kyle Schwarber) against Colorado lefty Kyle Freeland. “It was tough without the bullpen, without KB, without Darvish,” Báez said. “Tony struggled all April. We just kept going about: ‘We’re going to get it back. We’re going to be together.’ But it never came to us. We were never in a rhythm of winning games. “We were paying attention to other teams because we were going down. We lost so many people from our lineup that we were just paying attention to what other teams were doing. That’s not how it works.

Next year, we’re going to come back and fight again. I don’t want to hear nothing about other teams. We know what we got.” But do they really? This also wasn’t a bullpen built to last three or four playoff rounds. Pedro Strop – who hadn’t pitched in a game since Sept. 13 – willed himself through the pain in his left hamstring and pitched a scoreless ninth inning because he felt like the team needed him. Hamels – who had only one other relief appearance in a big-league career that began in 2006 and extended past 2,550 innings plus 16 playoff starts – followed Strop with two more scoreless innings against the Rockies. “Baseball’s just crazy,” Strop said. “Now it’s our turn to go home and watch it on TV. We’re not happy with the situation right now, but you got to take it as a man.” Hamels said he hopes the Cubs pick up his $20 million option for next season. That would be a good step toward stabilizing the 2019 rotation with Lester heading into Year 5 of his $155 million megadeal and Darvish recovering from a surgical procedure on his right elbow. “Everybody getting healthy, that definitely turns the tide,” Hamels said. “I think they’ve got quite a few more years to really put a dent in the National League and bring home a couple more World Series.” Sounds good, but an offseason of rest and recovery and hoping for a different result doesn’t sound like Epstein’s style. Listen to Báez, who blossomed into a consistent MVP-level performer and became the heart and the brains of this team. We all know Báez is the one with the sixth sense and sharp baseball instincts. “The way you play the game, the way you react, the way you fail, the frustration, all that shows how you feel,” Báez said. “We were trying to get everybody together, but at the same time, because we struggled, we were paying attention to how far we were back, how we were in front. “That’s not what we do. In ’16, it didn’t matter who was out there. We knew we had a lineup and we knew they had to pick someone to pitch to in that lineup. We’re not doing that. If we don’t do that, if we don’t play as a team, we’re not going to win.” One way or another, change is coming. As the crowd of 40,151 filed out after the last night at Wrigley Field this year, what looked like a father and a son walked down the ramp. The kid asked: What about Bryce Harper? They both agreed: That would be great. -- The Athletic Javy Báez’s bat alone can’t carry listless Cubs offense in wild-card loss By Author The Cubs won 95 games in 2018. They made the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year. And they played two huge home games after a 162-game schedule. But for the first time during this era of Cubs baseball, there was no champagne celebration in the home clubhouse at Wrigley Field. A 13-inning, 2-1 loss to the Colorado Rockies in the NL wild card game eliminated the Cubs from the postseason, their earliest exit in this era. It came a night after they fell 3-1 to the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 163, giving their rivals to the north a division crown and home-field advantage through the NLCS.

Tuesday’s loss meant the Cubs scored just two runs in their final 22 innings of play and just a lone run each in three of their final four games, all three losses — any of which could have been the win that’d have them preparing for Game 1 of the NLDS right now. “We played that game a lot,” manager Joe Maddon said after failing to take the Cubs to an NLCS for the first time in his four years on the North Side. “Believe me, it was on my mind for a large part of it. We had some opportunities, we just could not cash in. They pitched really well too, but we need to figure that out in the offseason next spring training. As my buddy Dave would say, we left too much chicken on the bone right there. We’ve had plenty of opportunities and I’m not here to denigrate anybody, our work’s put in, the hay’s in the barn, everybody cares, it just didn’t play out this way offensively.” As reporters entered the Cubs clubhouse after a tough loss, many players were still seen embracing each other. Willson Contreras hung his head as he sat by his locker, a stinging defeat leaving his eyes red. Reporters immediately gathered around Jon Lester as he deconstructed another brilliant postseason performance on his part, this one six innings of gutsy one-run ball on four hits, striking out nine (tying his season high) and walking just one. The outing dropped his postseason career ERA to a remarkable 2.51 in 154 innings. It felt apropos that the pitching would show up while the offense left everyone wondering how so much talent could struggle for so long. This was an offense that led the NL with 5.12 runs per game at the All-Star break. But they collapsed in the final 70 games, ending the season sixth in the league at 4.67 runs per game. “It’s not like we’re standing up there with the barrel in our hands and the knob trying to hit it,” Albert Almora Jr. said, unable to explain the second-half offensive failures. “It sucks.” At times it seemed as though the baseball gods were trying to gift the Cubs runs, but they just didn’t want to take them. From Kris Bryant’s misplayed popup to Tommy La Stella reaching on catcher’s interference to Javy Báez hugging Nolan Arenado on the field not being called interference, the Cubs seemed to get free base-runners in multiple innings. But not one of those instances were cashed in with runs. The lone big hit was Báez’s two-out, RBI double that followed a Terrance Gore steal of second. The Cubs ended the night 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position while stranding 10 men on base. Along with a stop-and-go offense, the lack of production with men in scoring position was a theme for much of the season. The Cubs batting average in all situations in 2018 was .258, fourth in the game. It dropped to .247 with runners in scoring position, 20th in baseball. Their ISO dropped from .152 to .131, their strikeout rate jumped from 21.8 percent to 22.6 percent and their hard-hit rate somehow dropped from a bad 31.7 percent rate (28th in baseball) to an even worse 29.9 percent (second to last in the game). Through much of the early part of the season, Maddon would talk about how he wanted to see the ball moved. Use the entire part of the field, he’d say, go middle and opposite and the natural pull power would come after that. There were times when that method really seemed to be sinking in. At one point in the season, Chili Davis had a meeting with the hitters. The message was simple: don’t try and do it all on your own. If you don’t get it done, trust that your teammate behind you will. Did the Cubs lose that mindset at some point down the stretch? “I think we did,” Báez said. “I actually said it today in the dugout. It was the third inning and I said, ‘Now we’re here, everybody together.’ If there was a pitch and it was a ball, everybody said, ‘No, that’s down.’ Everybody was talking in the dugout, everybody was together, everybody was looking at the situation.”

Báez was one of the few position players to take a step forward at the plate in 2018. That emergence on the field gave him the confidence to become more of a vocal leader off it. His 131 wRC+ was tops on the team and good enough to garner MVP consideration. Anthony Rizzo took a slight step back, but after a dreadful April, the second-worst full month of his career, he bounced back to have a strong season, posting a 125 wRC+. Bryant, despite a left shoulder injury that limited him to just 102 games, matched Rizzo’s 125, but for him that was a big disappointment. Ben Zobrist bounced back at the age of 37 to post a 123 wRC+. The rest of the team was all below 120 wRC+. There were so many statistical anomalies for this offensive group that left many scratching their head by year’s end. “We would love to have gone up there and just hit better with runners in scoring position, square the ball up more,” Bryant said. “But we just didn’t do that. It’s frustrating and I don’t have an answer to it. It’s making me more motivated to figure out a way to figure it out. That’s how I’ve always been my whole life. Whether it be baseball, school or playing Monopoly. Whatever, I’m always going to find a way to be better. This year didn’t go the way I wanted it to personally, but I think it’s during your lowest of your low when you build character and learn your most.” When asked about his shoulder, Bryant said he felt fine, but also didn’t seem too interested in discussing it any further. How he heals and what may or may not need to be done remains to be seen, but there’s no denying that him playing to his full potential would change the look of this offense. As a whole, the Cubs offense is loaded with talent, but after a while, their inability to score with any regularity became a jarring reality and has led to major questions about whether changes will be needed. “I don’t know, I haven’t even thought of that,” Bryant said when asked if he expected changes for an offensive core that’s been to four straight postseasons. “I know (the front office is) gonna do something. They always find a way to help the team out in any way. Whether it be a player or some sort of gadget that we can use. They find a way to help us get better. I’m confident that we will come out next year a lot better than this year.” Bryant arrived in Chicago in April 2015 and has never seen his season end this early. The third baseman was pensive as he stood at his locker, striking a somber tone at times, but was generally reflective and searching for answers to a season that just never seemed quite right. “Losing two games in a row where the other team is celebrating on our field,” Bryant said. “That makes it a lot tougher. I was sitting there watching them.” The Cubs never imagined they’d be the ones watching celebrations. After reloading in the offseason by adding Yu Darvish, Tyler Chatwood and Brandon Morrow, not a single one of those players, due to either injury or ineffectiveness, was on Tuesday’s wild card roster. But still, this group believed they had enough to last deeper than just the wee hours of the third day of October. While others chose to give credit to the opposition and their strong pitching, Bryant said he was disappointed that he missed so many hittable pitches. And always one for honesty, Báez didn’t feel the need to hold back.

“I thought we were going to go to the World Series this year,” Báez said. “But we weren’t us. We were competing. But not the whole time, not as a team.” The outspoken MVP candidate repeatedly suggested that the Cubs were worrying too much about other teams. “I just feel like our mind was over there and not here,” Báez said. “Not on here touching the ground. We were trying to get everybody here together. But at the same time, because we struggled, we were paying attention to how far we were back or how far we were in front of anybody. That’s not what we do. In ’16, it didn’t matter who was out there. We knew we had a lineup and we knew they had to pitch to someone in our lineup. We’re not doing that. If we don’t do that and we’re not playing as a team, we’re not going to win. It doesn’t matter. We’re not going to win.” Báez said the Cubs seemed to figure that part out by Tuesday. But by that point, it was too late. In 2015, they were underdogs getting their first taste of postseason baseball. By 2016, they were an ultra-focused group from the get-go, intent on ending 108 years of misery and taking home a World Series. Last season they broke out of their post-World Series stupor came back from a 43-45 record and a 5 1/2-game division deficit at the All-Star break. This seems to be a group that’s often waited to find its fire after being backed into a corner, and this time they couldn’t fight their way out. “I think everybody here gets it when we’re really down,” Báez said, not hesitating to shed some light on the reality of what makes this team tick. “When we’re down and we’re against the wall, everybody gets together. I think that’s what we need from the beginning. To compete and to make the other team look at us. Not us look at them. Not us looking at how they’re going to react. It’s about us. It’s not about over there.” How will they do that? By communicating, Báez said. And when they return next spring, he’s done hearing excuses, looking at the opposition and searching for reasons why they couldn’t get it done. “Next year we’re gonna come back and fight again,” Báez said. “We’re going to make that adjustment. I don’t wanna hear nothing about other teams. We know what we got.” -- The Athletic After five hours and 164 games, the Cubs had a lot of love and not enough runs By Jon Greenberg If you’re here for fire and brimstone after the Cubs’ season ended with a 2-1, 13-inning loss to Colorado in the wild-card game, well, you’ve come to the wrong place. I’ve written that story before. Like after Monday’s loss to Milwaukee that got the Cubs here. I’ll write it again in the coming days, while the Rockies play the Brewers in the NLDS. The Cubs losing a game in 2018 because they only scored one run is a dog-bites-man story. This was the 40th game of their season where they scored one run or fewer. That kind of collective failure is going to cost someone or someones their job, regardless of the franchise making the playoffs for the fourth straight year. Ninety-five wins in the regular season is a fantastic accomplishment. One run in a one-game postseason is not.

But we have time for that later. The hours and days we figured we’d be writing about playoff series have to be filled by something, right? The Cubs have a long offseason in front of them. It’s 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday as I sit down at my laptop and I want to write about hugs. Yes, hugs. The first hug came in the 11th inning. Remember that inning? Javy Báez was forced out between second and third and he and Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado wound up hugging. It was a funny moment in an otherwise tense game. It was a Javy moment. He’s an MVP candidate now, but like a cool town that becomes popular, I hope he stays weird. The rest of the hugs came after it was all over. After a five-hour game ended a 164-game season. After Báez’s season-saving RBI double in the eighth inning was for naught. After Jon Lester’s nails start and Kyle Hendricks getting the loss in relief. When we walked into the losing clubhouse, the Theo Epstein-designed room that was meant to foster inclusivity and unity, everyone was hugging. It was impossible to miss. No one was angry. There was sadness and resignation, sure, but no one was sullen or pissy. There was love in the air. I know, I know. It’s not what a Cubs fan wants to read about after a season like this one ended like it did. It wasn’t a great year, despite the 95 wins. The Cubs were frustrating to watch. They never clicked. The season, wracked by injuries, was a slog. If Epstein made big changes across the board starting this week, I wouldn’t be surprised. But again, you couldn’t miss the hugs in that clubhouse. I’d be remiss if I didn’t write a little about that scene. The relief pitchers were hugging. Former Cubs like Ryan Dempster and David Ross were hugging current players like Tommy La Stella and Jason Heyward. Albert Almora Jr. was hugging Tom “Otis” Hellman, the longtime clubhouse manager. Kyle Schwarber was hugging Ian Happ. Anthony Rizzo was even hugging the beat writers. But the hug that captured my attention was one between Schwarber and Willson Contreras. It wasn’t a bro hug. It was the kind of long embrace you have with someone you truly love. I believe I heard Schwarber call Contreras “a big teddy bear.” No, I’m sure of it. After the hug was over, and maybe it lasted 10 seconds, Schwarber gave Contreras, who walked twice and caught all 13 innings, an impassioned pep talk, using his hands to gesticulate his point. Contreras had tears in his eyes. I wanted to know what Schwarber said to Contreras. “I mean, that guy was the best catcher in the National League,” Schwarber said, and I know you’re rolling your eyes right now, but let’s hear him out. “What do you say about what this guy did this year? He went out there and he gives his heart out every day. I think that’s what people should see, because this guy goes out there and he plays his absolute heart out every day. It doesn’t matter if we get in at 1 o’clock and we got a day game tomorrow, he’s out there, he’s playing his heart out. Just like today, he

went out there and he gave it his all, you know what, I’m not going to put words in his mouth, he should be very, very proud of the year he had, personally. For me to see him come up through the minor leagues until now, wow.” Now, Contreras was one of the more frustrating players to watch all year. He made an All-Star team, yes, but his power disappeared, he became an instant out. Of all the young hitters that seemed destined for greatness, he might be the most disappointing to Cubs fans and executives. But not to his teammates. “I just told Willy he did an unbelievable job tonight,” Jon Lester said. “He’s done an unbelievable job this year with me personally, he’s done an unbelievable job with this pitching staff as a whole. That’s a hard game to manage behind the plate. He did it. This guy’s in tears right now.” The Cubs never got their champagne spraying spree, but they did end the season with a private toast and a shot. A drink for the road. “It was a great year and I want people to know this team it was special,” Schwarber said. “We grinded our butts off and people maybe on the outside may think this was a disappointing year, but if you look around this room and you were here every day, you’d have a lot of appreciation for what these guys went through, day in and day out.” Lester, who had one of his best starts of the season (nine strikeouts and only 86 pitches in six innings) in a must-win game Tuesday, brought up so many positives in his never-ending talk with reporters, he made fun of himself for his Pollyanna attitude. “I love our guys,” he said. “I love our competitiveness. I love our grind. I love everything these guys do, what they bring. There’s not a group of guys I wouldn’t take into another playoff game tomorrow than this group. I would like to think we’d win it.” I’m not so sure about that, but you’re not going to get Lester to bag on the hitters. Maybe not even off the record. He’s been around too long, he’s seen too much good and too much bad to pretend this game is easy. “We have a guy that’s potentially going to win the MVP and he’s in tears right now, you know?” Lester said of Báez. “You have guys that give a shit and really care about us winning, regardless of their stats, regardless of anything else. That’s what makes us a unique group. Obviously it didn’t work out tonight, that’s happens. I don’t think we beat ourselves. They beat us and sometimes that’s happens.” There will be changes next season. Perhaps a lot of changes. It’s interesting, though, because what I saw in the wake of the earliest ending to any Cubs season since this renaissance began in 2015 was exactly the kind of brotherhood that Epstein wanted to build when he took on this Sisyphean task back in the winter of 2011. He’s harped on the human side of the game, over and over again. And in defeat, the Cubs showed they are the kind of team he’s always envisioned. But while you can’t really kick a team when it just lost a 13-inning game by one run, this result also epitomized everything that went bad this year. You can’t pin this loss on Yu Darvish’s injury or Tyler Chatwood’s ineffectiveness. Kris Bryant said his shoulder is fine. But this early exit felt, well, deserved. The Cubs just couldn’t get their act together on offense for way too much of the season. They scored eight runs on Friday against the Cardinals, then one run Saturday, then 10 runs Sunday. In Monday’s NL Central tiebreaker loss to Milwaukee, they scored one run. On Tuesday, one again.

“I’d always like to think good pitching shuts down good offense,” Lester said, but even he knows there’s something wrong. New hitting coach Chili Davis didn’t fix the Cubs, just like the old hitting coach John Mallee wasn’t the root cause of their problems. The Cubs’ young hitters just haven’t improved over the years like Epstein thought they would. Is that on them or on the coaching staff? Are some of these Cubs better huggers than hitters? Maybe so. The front office has a lot of self-evaluation to do and fortunately for them, they have extra time to do it. It’s so long ago now, but the day began with Báez drawing a line in the sand in front of a room of reporters. “You know, we’ve got to stop worrying about other teams,” he said to a question I asked him about the Cubs’ offense. “We’ve got to go out there and have fun. We’ve got to go out there and compete. If we do that, there’s no team that can beat us, and they know that, so that’s why they run their mouth a lot, because they know we’re the best. Even when we’re struggling, we are (he motions with his hand above his head) the head of everybody.” He’s right, of course, and Báez, more than any other Cubs I heard after the game, offered the most sober criticism of his team. “We just kept going about, ‘We’re going to get it back. We’re going to be together,’” he said. “But it never came to us. We were never in a rhythm of winning games.” Maybe the Cubs needed a little humility. What I call “Cubbie Exceptionalism” has made everyone around here feel like they’re special, and self-confidence is a good thing. But… “Like I said, sometimes you need to get, for lack of a better term, sorry, you need to get your dick knocked in the dirt to appreciate where you’re at,” Lester said. “Maybe we needed that. Maybe we needed to get knocked down a peg or two and realize nothing is going to be given to us. At the end of the day, I don’t feel like our guys are that way. I feel like we grinded ’til the end and we came up one run short.” One run seems like such a trifling thing, but in October, it’s the difference between moving on and going home. The Cubs were a win short of winning the division, a run short of playing this game until the sun came up. In the end, they lost as a team, as a family, but they still lost too early in October for this season to feel like a success to anyone outside that clubhouse. -- The Athletic MLB commissioner: Ruling coming soon in Addison Russell case By Patrick Mooney As the Cubs prepared for at least one more night of October baseball at Wrigley Field, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred signaled that a ruling is coming soon in Addison Russell’s domestic violence case.

“Right now, we’re kind of going day by day,” Manfred said while meeting with a small group of reporters before Tuesday’s National League wild-card game. “I think we will have a final decision ‘shortly’ is the best I can do for you. The most important thing is to take our time, make sure we have all the facts and make sure we try to make a decision at a point in time that it doesn’t effect roster decisions and things like that.” If the Cubs win this elimination game against the Colorado Rockies and advance to the next playoff round, MLB and the players’ union could extend Russell’s administrative leave on Wednesday for another seven-day period under the joint domestic violence policy. Russell went on administrative leave on Sept. 21 after his ex-wife Melisa Reidy-Russell outlined abuse allegations in a blog post. Reidy-Russell has since spoken with MLB’s investigative team as well as ESPN to tell her side of the story. The Athletic reported that MLB has gathered additional credible information beyond her blog post, with all signs pointing toward a suspension for Russell. MLB never officially closed last year’s investigation, when Reidy-Russell declined to cooperate after a third party made accusations on social media, Russell denied the allegations and no police reports surfaced. The sense around the team is that Russell has already played his final game in a Cubs uniform and would not be a factor in a potential five-game playoff series against the Milwaukee Brewers. Manfred said it’s “conceivable” that Russell’s case could be decided before the end of the postseason but declined to get into specifics: “I’m not going further than that.” -- Cubs.com Cubs' season ends after Wild, dramatic night By Carrie Muskat CHICAGO -- For the second straight night, the Cubs could only watch as another team sprayed champagne and celebrated at Wrigley Field. The Cubs never had a chance to party. So, after losing, 2-1, to the Rockies in 13 innings in the National League Wild Card Game at Wrigley Field on Tuesday night, the Cubs gathered in their clubhouse, hugged and toasted each other. There weren't many dry eyes. "It was a great year," Kyle Schwarber said. "I want people to know that this team was special and we grinded our butts off, and that people maybe outside might think it's a disappointing year. If you look in this room, and you were in here every day, you'd have a lot of appreciation for what these guys went through day in and day out." But the Cubs' season is over. Playing their third game in as many days in their third different time zone, the Rockies edged the Cubs in a drama-filled game -- which was the longest elimination game in history in terms of innings and time of game (four hours and 55 minutes). Next stop for the Rockies is Miller Park, just 90 miles north, where they'll face the Brewers in the NL Division Series, starting Thursday. "It's a very weird feeling, completely unexpected," Kyle Hendricks said. "That's why guys are hanging around. They don't know what to do. We definitely weren't ready to be done this early. We can remember this feeling, use it as fuel next year. It'll take some time to process this. We were planning on playing baseball."

With two outs in the 13th -- yes, the 13th -- Trevor Story singled off Hendricks and reached third on Gerardo Parra's single before scoring on Tony Wolters' single. Wolters, by the way, was the third catcher the Rockies used in the game. The Cubs got a burst of speed from Terrance Gore, a miraculous recovery by Pedro Strop and a hug by Javier Baez to stay close, but it wasn't enough. After 48 come-from-behind wins in the regular season, the lively crowd of 40,151 expected one more. It didn't happen. Cubs manager Joe Maddon pulled starter Jon Lester after six impressive innings and called on nearly all of the pitchers on the roster, including starters Cole Hamels and Hendricks. Maddon said he didn't want to take Lester out, but it was what he called a "National League moment," lifting the pitcher for a pinch-hitter. "I don't see where he's going to get heat," Rizzo said. "I think he's managed his ass off this year with what we've been dealt, as far as losing Yu [Darvish], as far as losing [Brandon] Morrow, [Strop] going down. We lost so many guys, and we still figured out a way to win. That's all a credit to him. "I think Joe's best year was this year as far as managing all the moving parts." Said Baez: "They didn't say that when he made a good move and he wins the game. They didn't say that in '16 when we won [the World Series]. We love our manager." The Cubs, denied a chance to three-peat as NL Central champs by the Brewers on Monday in Game 163, have to wonder what the heck happened to their offense. In the first half of the season, the Cubs led the NL with 476 runs; but they totaled 285 after the All-Star break, which ranked eighth in the league. "We'd love to go out there and hit better with runners in scoring position, square the ball up more, and we just didn't do that," Kris Bryant said. "It's frustrating." "Tonight was Kyle Freeland's fault," Daniel Murphy said about the offense's struggles. "He threw really well. Runs weren't exactly easy for them to come by either." Freeland, who was working on short rest for the first time since college, got a nice assist from Story, who snared Murphy's line drive for the second out of the seventh when the Cubs had a runner at first. The Cubs did load the bases in the seventh, taking advantage of a catcher's interference call against Drew Butera, but Adam Ottavino struck out pinch-hitter Jason Heyward to end the inning. In the eighth, the Cubs called on their secret weapon, speedster Gore. With two outs, Rizzo singled and was lifted for Gore, who quickly stole second base. Baez then lined a double to center to drive in Gore and tie the game at 1. "I felt like we wouldn't lose that game after Javy got the base hit," Lester said. "For whatever reason, we did. Maybe in the long run, this will be good for us. You can only learn from losing. I feel this will be good for us moving forward. Unfortunately, we're on the wrong end of it tonight." Rizzo lifted for a pinch-runner? He joined the crowd as a spectator and was leading the dugout as they clapped to the music.

"At that point, you go put your cheerleading pom poms on and cheer the boys on," Rizzo said. "The motto this year was 'Everybody In,' and we exemplified that throughout the year." Strop, pitching for the first time since Sept. 13 after missing time with a strained left hamstring, struck out Ian Desmond to end the Rockies' ninth and strand a runner at second. The Rockies went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position. This was the Cubs' second Wild Card Game since Maddon took over in 2015, but that year, Jake Arrieta threw a shutout against the Pirates. That game proved to be a seminal point for the Cubs. "We've really flipped this culture here with the Chicago Cubs organization," Rizzo said. "We fell short this year. We didn't go on a run at all this year. It's been a roller coaster for this team, it's been a roller coaster for the fans and the city of Chicago." MOMENTS THAT MATTERED Home-field advantage: Lester walked Charlie Blackmon to start the game, and he reached third on DJ LeMahieu's double that bounced into the ivy covering the left-field wall. Blackmon scored on Nolan Arenado's sacrifice fly. Lester escaped any further damage by striking out both Story and Matt Holliday, both on curves. Missed opportunity: Ian Happ, batting for Lester, drew a walk to lead off the sixth and advanced on Bryant's single, which right fielder David Dahl misjudged. The Cubs couldn't take advantage, though, as Freeland got Rizzo to hit into a 4-6-3 double play. Rizzo was one of two lefties in the lineup against Freeland, who held left-handed hitters to a .185 average this season. Curious hug: The Cubs had a chance in the 11th. Baez walked to lead off against Seunghwan Oh, and advanced on Albert Almora Jr.s sacrifice. Butera ran to third to thwart Baez from trying to advance. Murphy was then intentionally walked to set up Willson Contreras, who stopped play because of an apparent leg injury, then he reached on a fielder's choice, forcing Baez. SOUND SMART This was Lester's 12th career postseason start in which he gave up one run or fewer, and he's now tied with Andy Pettitte for second most all-time. Only Tom Glavine (14) has had more. YOU GOTTA SEE THIS Bryant made 10 starts in left field during the regular season and had no assists, but he came up big in the Rockies' seventh. Desmond singled to lead off against Jesse Chavez, and Dahl flied out to left. Desmond tried to advance, but Bryant threw him out at second. HE SAID IT "This is four years in a row in the playoffs, this is something we really believe we can sustain. We just got a little bit challenged offensively at the end of the year, obviously that hurt us. But as a group, and talented, and the way they interact, I could not ask for more." -- Maddon MITEL REPLAY OF THE DAY Well, the ball hit someone. Unfortunately, for home-plate umpire Chris Guccione, it wasn't Gore, who led off the 13th inning.

A Scott Oberg inside pitch eluded catcher Butera and hit Guccione flush on his left arm. Gore, however, took first base as if the ball had grazed him. The umpires ruled otherwise. The Cubs challenged, but the original call of no hit-by-pitch was confirmed. Gore was sent back to the batter's box -- where he struck out swinging. Ben Zobrist singled to lead off the Cubs' first, and two outs later the Rockies thought they had picked him off at first on a throw from Freeland. The Cubs challenged the ruling, and after a review, the call was overturned. The Rockies had a runner at first and one out in the eighth when Steve Cishek got LeMahieu to hit a grounder to Murphy, who started a 4-6-3 double play. The Rockies challenged the call at second, and after a review, the call stood. -- Cubs.com Gore lights fuse, but fireworks never come By Carrie Muskat CHICAGO -- Terrance Gore is fast. And he showed just how quick in the eighth inning of the Cubs' 2-1 loss in 13 innings to the Rockies in the National League Wild Card Game on Tuesday night at Wrigley Field. But Gore's speed wasn't enough to get the rest of the Cubs' offense going. With the Cubs trailing, 1-0, with two outs in the eighth against the Rockies, Anthony Rizzo singled and was lifted for pinch-runner Gore, who was added to the Cubs' NL Wild Card Game roster because of his speed. Gore stole second on Adam Ottavino's first pitch to Javier Baez without a throw and then raced home on Baez's double to left-center to tie the game. "I felt like we wouldn't lose that game after Javy got the base hit," Cubs starter Jon Lester said. "For whatever reason, we did." Gore was successful on all six of his stolen-base attempts with the Cubs during the regular season. "You come out of the game there, Terrance Gore steals a base and scores and you can't really question it," Rizzo said. "Obviously, I don't ever want to come out of a baseball game. At that point, you go put your cheerleading pom-poms on and cheer the boys on. The motto this year was 'Everybody In,' and we exemplified that throughout the year." The Cubs stranded 10 in the game and went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position. "We had some opportunities, we just could not cash in," manager Joe Maddon said. "We caught the ball, we pitched really, really well. Like I said, the esprit de corps, I can't ask for more. So it was just something we really have to focus on in the offseason." --

Cubs.com Lester pads postseason resume with 9-K gem By Carrie Muskat CHICAGO -- Cubs lefty Jon Lester was the perfect choice to start against the Rockies in Tuesday night's National League Wild Card Game. The trouble is, he didn't get any offensive support as the North Siders' season ended with a 2-1 loss in 13 innings at Wrigley Field. Because of that lack of offense, the lefty's gem was cut short. With the Cubs trailing, 1-0, and in dire need of an offensive boost, Lester was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the sixth inning having thrown only 86 pitches. "It's obviously disappointing," Lester said. "I feel we should've won that game. That's the unfortunate part about this Wild Card Game, but at the same time, that's what makes this Wild Card Game so unique." Lester gave up a run in the first inning on Nolan Arenado's sacrifice fly, the first out of the game, but that was it as he struck out nine over six innings. The 34-year-old roared after he fanned Matt Holliday for his final strikeout of the night. The nine strikeouts tied his season high (Sept. 15) and also matched a postseason career high (Game 1 against the Cardinals in the 2015 NL Division Series). "I didn't want to take Jon out," manager Joe Maddon said. "Jon was good to go. He was definitely good to go and [pinch-hitter Ian] Happ starts out the inning and we put ourselves in a position possibly to score, and it went away. But Jonny had a lot left in the tank, a lot." With the win-or-go-home element of the NL Wild Card Game, Maddon had starters Cole Hamels and Kyle Hendricks in the bullpen and called on both to pitch in relief. "There's a lot of platitudes to be spread around. There's a lot of good stuff," Maddon said. "We just did not hit like we think we're capable of, otherwise some pretty good baseball." Lester now has 133 career postseason strikeouts, eighth-most in Major League history. "I feel we played really good baseball tonight," Lester said. "The pitchers threw the hell out of the ball, defense played great. Sometimes you just get beat. Unfortunately, we got beat tonight." -- ESPNChicago.com After playoff elimination, Cubs reflect on season and look ahead By Jesse Rogers CHICAGO -- When it was over, the Cubs were more disappointed than stunned that their season came to a close after scoring only a single run in a 2-1 loss in 13 innings to the Colorado Rockies in the National League wild-card game Tuesday. Perhaps they weren't shocked, because just the day before, they had lost the NL Central tiebreaker 3-1 to the Milwaukee Brewers. Twenty-two innings of the most important baseball of the season, and the

Cubs managed only two runs. It's really the storyline of their season's second half, as they went from the best record in the NL to out of the postseason in the span of less than 48 hours. "Let's get one thing straight: We're best record in the league, minus one," Cubs pitcher Jon Lester said after Tuesday's season-ending defeat. "We had to play 163 in order to lose that title. I like my chances every year if you come down to the last game of the year and you're fighting for best record in the league." The Cubs put up some fight but not many runs in the second half of the season. So when they came up short on Monday and Tuesday, it wasn't something new for them. Like the rabid crowd at Wrigley Field on both days, Chicago manager Joe Maddon was waiting for something to happen on offense. Inning after inning went by against the Rockies' pitching and nothing materialized, other than a game-extending RBI double by Javier Baez in the eighth inning. Then, silence. Maddon has seen this act before. "Yeah, we played that game a lot," he said. "Believe me, it was on my mind for a large part of it. We had some opportunities. We just could not cash in." It was the 40th time in 2018 that the Cubs had scored one or zero runs -- tops in the league. The Cubs' front office will have the offseason to figure out what went wrong on that side of the ball, because Tuesday's game was simply a microcosm of much of the season. The club managed one extra-base hit in 13 innings. Chicago's slugging capabilities have dried up for a position-player base that won the World Series two seasons ago and includes the same players. "As an offense, we need to mature and develop a little bit more," first baseman Anthony Rizzo said. "At times, we did this year, as a unit, and at times ... not so much." As expected after the game, players vowed to return in a better mindset following a rough end to the season, which saw them at a ballpark on 42 of their last 43 days. The mental fatigue wore on their faces. And they recognized, as one of the top teams in the NL over the past few years, everyone wanted a piece of them. "Sometimes you have to take the bad with the good," Lester said. "Right now, we're taking the bad. ... Maybe we needed that." MVP candidate Baez offered his take. "We struggled the whole year, the whole year," Baez said. "We just kept [saying] we're going to get it back ... but it never came to us. We were never in a rhythm of winning games. I think it was because we were paying attention to other teams." Though in first place the entire second half, there was a constant feeling of things slipping away for the Cubs. Most of the time, they responded when they needed to. But in the end, two teams took what the Cubs were barely holding on to: National League supremacy. Now, they are the first team eliminated from the postseason. "I don't feel like we lost this," Lester said. "They beat us. We played our hearts out. ... Maybe in the long run, this will be good for us. You can only learn from losing."

The Cubs will have the longest offseason in four years to do some soul-searching, as they had advanced to the NL Championship Series over the previous three postseasons. Maybe rest is simply what they need most. It's also entirely possible that major personnel changes are coming. For the players, they will lament losing a wild-card game at home, something this organization would have been thrilled with a few years ago. Now the stakes are higher. So is the hurt. "It sucks," third baseman Kris Bryant said. "I've been fortunate to not be eliminated this early. "This is the best time for this organization. The fans have suffered for a long time. I think it's important for us to be proud of what we've been able to accomplish. We didn't accomplish what we wanted this year, but there's still a lot to be proud of where the Chicago Cubs have come from." -- NBC Sports Chicago What went wrong for the 2018 Cubs? Allow Javy Baez to explain... By Tony Andracki Cubs fans, if you're unhappy about the way the season ended, you're not alone. Javy Baez is right there with you. Baez turned himself into an MVP candidate in 2018, enjoying one of the best seasons in Cubs history. But it's a year that ended in tears for him and some of his teammates after dropping a heartbreaker to the Colorado Rockies in the NL Wild-Card Game Tuesday night (and a little bit into Wednesday morning). All season, Baez was the guy Cubs fans and players turned to in hopes he would come through in a big moment. He certainly delivered Tuesday, smacking a double into the left-center gap in the eighth inning with two outs and two strikes to plate Terrance Gore and tie the game. Unfortunately for Baez and the Cubs, that was the only run the lineup could score all night against Rockies pitching. As a whole, they notched just two tallies in 22 innings of action in must-win games across the first two days of October. The thing is - the Cubs should not have even been playing Tuesday night. Or Monday afternoon for that matter. They held onto the division lead for months before Milwaukee came slamming into their coattails. Roughly an hour after being eliminated, Baez held court at his locker, unveiling a stream of consciousness about how the Cubs got to the point where they would wake up on the morning of Oct. 3 with no baseball left to play. "Everybody went down," Baez said. "It was tough without the bullpen, without [Kris Bryant], without [Yu] Darvish, but at the end of the day, we still tied. We struggled the whole year. The whole year. Tony [Rizzo] struggled all April. We just kept going about, we gotta get it back, we gotta get together. But it never came to us.

"We were never in a rhythm of winning games. And i think it was 'cause we were paying attention to other teams 'cause we lost so many people from our lineup that we were just paying attention to what other teams were doing and that's not how it works. If we pay attention to what they do, that's what we'll do. It's how I look at it. "Next year, we gotta come back and fight again. we gotta make an adjustment about that. 'Cause I wanna make sure, I don't wanna hear nothing about other teams because we know what we got. But it's tough." When asked to clarify, Baez did and then some: "Before September, it was like St. Louis is up or they were down 6 games or Milwaukee was down 2 games," he said. "I just feel like our mind was over there and not here, touching the ground. And you just have to do a lot with it, the way you play the game, the way you react when you fail, the frustration, all that. It shows how you feel. "And we were trying to get everybody here together, but at the same time, because we struggled, we paid attention to how far we were back, how far we were in front of anybody. And that's not what we do. In 2016, it didn't matter who was out there. We knew we had a lineup and we knew they had to pick somebody to pitch to in that lineup. "We're not doing that and if we're not doing that and we don't play as a team, we're not gonna win." The 25-year-old played all over the infield for the Cubs in 2018, including taking over at shortstop full time when Addison Russell was hurt and then again when Russell was placed on administrative leave. Baez led the National League with 111 RBI while smacking 34 homers, 40 doubles, 9 triples, stealing 21 bags, scoring 101 runs and hitting .290 with an .881 OPS. Those numbers added with Baez's reliability from the start of the season until the end and his extreme baseball IQ, this Cubs team saw "El Mago" emerge as one of the most vocal leaders in the clubhouse. Part of that is because of how well he sees the game and always seems to be one step ahead of opponents. Yet he wasn't able to get his team over the hump and into the NLDS, despite his eighth-inning heroics Tuesday night. "What hurts me is we struggled all year and we still went really far," Baez said. "Other teams pay attention to us even though we struggled all year. But we made it to the playoffs again. This is the fourth season making it to the playoffs. "We didn't win first place this year, but like I said, we struggled. It happens; this is baseball. If you don't make the adjustment, nobody's gonna make it for you. It was a tough year for us. It was a great year for me and I still believe I can do better. We'll see next year." Of course Baez believes he can do better. What player wouldn't after putting together a season like that at only age 25? But Baez is also focused on getting the Cubs team as a whole to improve in 2019, especially mentally.

"I think everybody here gets it when we're really down," he said. "When we're down and we're again the wall, everybody gets together. And I think that's what we needed from the beginning. "To compete and to make the other team look at us - not us look at them or not us looking at how they're gonna react. It's about us. It's not about over there." Baez also has the luxury of time, as he's still under contract for three more years with the Cubs before he hits free agency. There's always next year. "I thought we were gonna go to the World Series this year again," Baez said. "We weren't us. We were competing, but at the moment, not the whole time, not as a team." -- NBC Sports Chicago Do the Cubs consider the 2018 season a success? 'No By Tony Andracki My, how things have changed at the corner of Clark and Addison. Wrigley Field was once home of the "Lovable Losers" and now it houses a 95-win team that just made the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season for the first time in the history of the franchise and yet everybody is unhappy. Thus is the nature of "World Series or bust" expectations. And that's exactly what the Cubs have here now. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad thing the Cubs and their fans are unhappy right now after a 2-1 loss in the thrilling — and stressful — 13-inning Wild-Card Game. We are truly in the golden era of Cubs baseball. So much so that a reporter cited Derek Jeter and the powerhouse Yankees when comparing the culture in a clubhouse that used to be home of the team with the longest championship drought in professional sports history. Jeter and the Yankees expected to win the World Series every single year. Now, Kris Bryant and the Cubs have the same goals and anything less is a disappointment. "Absolutely. We totally feel that," Bryant said. "After we won in 2016, it was a World Series or bust attitude. I mean, that's the right attitude to have. You play to be the last team standing. You don't play just to make the playoffs. "I think we've kinda built that culture up here that we are some of the best Chicago Cub teams that they've ever fielded and we take that and I'm pretty proud of that. We wanna go out there and win, but this year just wasn't our year." This is the earliest young players like Bryant and Kyle Schwarber have had their seasons end since joining the big-league roster in 2015. They weren't even sure what to do with themselves in the wee hours of

Wednesday morning, spending time hugging each other or just sitting at their locker staring speechless into space. A handful of players still hadn't showered or changed out of their uniforms more than an hour after the final out. Javy Baez talked to the media with eye black smeared all over his face. Most of the Cubs players were asked how they would sum up this season and if it would be considered a success or not despite 95 wins, a run in first place that lasted for the entire second half of the season and took a Game 163 to dethrone. Albert Almora Jr. didn't even let a reporter finish the question. "No. No. We lost," Almora said. "There's a lot of positives, but it's not a success unless we win. That's just the mindset that we have here. There were a lot of positives throughout the way. A lot of character grew in this clubhouse. That's all we can ask for, man. "Unfortunately, this league is unbelievably hard and we're trying to get to the World Series, trying to win another World Series. It's good players out there and I think we did a great job with the hand we were dealt and we never gave up." The hand the Cubs were dealt does include a brutal stretch to close out the regular season (only one off-day over the final 5-plus weeks) and then a tiebreaker the day before the win-or-go-home postseason game. But nobody used that as an excuse in the Cubs clubhouse and they don't feel like they choked down the stretch to let the Brewers take the division. After all, Milwaukee had to win its final 8 games in a row just to be able to sit alone atop the NL Central. "There's a couple goals throughout the season that you set out to do and obviously to win the division first and then move on to the World Series," Jon Lester said. "Sometimes you can't always control what goes on around you. But at the end of the day, I feel like coming down the stretch, we played good baseball. It wasn't like we beat ourselves. "Sometimes you gotta tip your hat to the opponent. I mean, you go 13 innings tonight against a really good team and we come out on the short end of the stick. But I feel like we shoulda won that game." Jason Heyward's voice and perspective carries a lot of weight in that clubhouse and he isn't here for consolation prizes. "Successful? Well, I'll tell you the way we go about things here," Heyward said. "We didn't pop any bottles this year. Tonight, of course, if we had won, we would've popped bottles. We had plenty to toast to. And we don't take postseasons for granted, we don't take winning for granted. "But our mindset is World Series or no. So that's kind of where our head is. It's a successful season. We were in the postseason, we played after the regular season. But where we want to go is win the World Series and that didn't happen for us this year." Anthony Rizzo is the face of the Cubs franchise and was a gigantic reason why they won it all in 2016. But he's seen it all in his 7 years in a Cubs uniform and certainly remembers what a 101-loss season feels like.

“In 2015, we were winning the Wild-Card game no matter what," Rizzo said. "In 2018, I’d say fans were pissed that we were in the Wild-Card game because we had a chance to win the division, we didn’t. But we’ve really flipped this culture here in the Chicago Cubs organization to being winners, and we fell short this year." Schwarber was positive as always, looking ahead to bigger and better things in 2019. “Right now it’s hard to swallow for all of us, but the big picture is we’ve done a lot of things here in the last couple years the Cubs faithful should be very proud of," Schwarber said. "And we’re expecting bigger things each and every year. So hang with us. Obviously, we’re all going to take our time here to swallow it, and trust us, we’ll be back and better than ever next year.” Nobody knows yet what changes this offseason will bring, but one thing's for certain — the Cubs' main goal in 2019 will absolutely be another World Series trophy. -- NBC Sports Chicago After earliest playoff exit of the Joe Maddon Era, Cubs players praise their oft-criticized manager By Vinnie Duber Joe Maddon has accomplished more than any Cubs manager ever. But Tuesday night saw the statistical low point of his tenure on the North Side with the Cubs eliminated from the postseason with a loss to the Colorado Rockies in the NL wild card game. After three straight trips to the NLCS and a curse-smashing World Series win in 2016, the fourth straight appearance in the playoffs ended after just one game. Though the level of success is unparalleled in franchise history, Maddon’s critics — no matter what walks of life they come from — have been vocal throughout the past four seasons. Maddon’s pitching decisions in the final games of the 2016 World Series have remained a hot-button topic among Chicago sports fans two years later. Former catcher Miguel Montero notably criticized Maddon on the radio on the day of the team’s championship parade. And every move he makes earns a chorus of second guessing on social media. But after the Cubs’ 2018 season came to a crashing halt Tuesday night — Wednesday morning, actually, by the time the 13-inning affair ended — there were no vocal critics to be found inside the home clubhouse. Heck, MVP candidate Javy Baez — who spent much of his day calling out critics — stepped up to defend his skipper from the barrage of judgment. “They don’t say that when he makes a good move and he wins the game. They didn’t say that in ’16 when we won, when he came and everything was changed. We love our manager,” Baez said, perhaps selectively forgetting the ire directed at Maddon even after the Cubs broke the curse. “The way he talks to us and the way he lets us do whatever we want, be us out here, I think it has a lot to do with what we do out there because we’ve got to be ourselves. When we do something right, he will tell us, and when you do something wrong, he will tell you the same way. And that’s what makes him better because he’s honest and he wants you to get better, too.”

"I just feel like people are saying more bad things than good things about people in general. I mean, that's tough, but that's the world we live in now," third baseman Kris Bryant said. "Joe always does a great job with us. He always has our best interest in mind, and we won 95 games during the regular season. That's pretty impressive. But we didn't win the one game that really counted, and that's where it's going to hurt." It’s easy for a frustrated fan to fire off a “Fire Maddon!” tweet, but have the Cubs become an organization of such high expectations that the results of this season, 95 wins and a fourth consecutive playoff berth, just weren’t enough? The team has been adamant about its own “World Series or bust” expectations since spring training. Would failing to meet those expectations mean a change in the manager’s chair? “I don’t know what to say about that. I can’t think of (it). I don’t make that kind of decision,” catcher Willson Contreras said when asked if he could envision playing for a manager that wasn’t Maddon. “But Joe is a great manager. He’s been great for this team. He made this team a winner, the front office made this team a winner. They were able to pull a lot of young talent together. “We’re like a family, we love each other, we win and lose together. And there’s nothing that I can do about that. We’re here to play baseball, and that’s a decision I cannot control. “If he’s here or not, we have to keep going and move forward.” There’s just one year left on Maddon’s contract with the Cubs, so at some point a decision is inevitable. His players provided plenty of plaudits, though they made it clear they won’t be the ones making that decision. Neither will the social-media critics. -- NBC Sports Chicago Cubs' season comes to a screeching halt after just one playoff game By Tony Andracki The initial reaction to Tuesday's National League Wild-Card Game could be marveling - or scoffing - at the epic nature of a win-or-go-home game lasting into the 13th inning. It was, after all, the longest postseason game in Wrigley Field history by both innings and game time. But as the dust settles on the Cubs' 2-1 loss to the Colorado Rockies, it will come down to the Cubs' lack of offense - a fitting way to end a season where that narrative was a major talking point (especially in the second half). For the second straight day, the Cubs managed to score just one run in a high-stakes October game - though this one was of the win-or-go-home variety. That one run came with two outs in the eighth inning when Anthony Rizzo singled, Terrance Gore pinch-ran, stole second and came around to score on Javy Baez's two-strike double. The Cubs did not pick up another hit after that Baez knock and managed just six hits in 13 innings of play.

Meanwhile, the Rockies' first batter of the game scored when Jon Lester (that's right, this game was actually started by Jon Lester, but nobody will blame you if you can't remember that far back) walked Charlie Blackmon, gave up a double to D.J. LeMahieu and then a sacrifice fly to Nolan Arenado. But the Rockies failed to score again for the next 48 batters until light-hitting catcher Tony Wolters knocked a groundball through the Cubs' infield with two outs off Kyle Hendricks. It was Wolters' first hit since Sept. 10 and he finished the 2018 regular season hitting .170. The Cubs were in first place for the entire second half of the season and it took until Game 163 for them to lose that position, yet they managed to play just one postseason game. They will now have to spend the rest of the offseason trying to find answers to a Jekyll and Hyde offense that scored 1 or 0 runs in 40 games (including playoffs) this season. The 115-loss Baltimore Orioles also scored 1 or 0 runs in 40 games in the 2018 regular season to lead the majors. --