A big ten season
In a calculated move meant to distract attention away from the Carlos Zambrano-Michael Barrett fallout, manager Lou Piniella took advantage of the first close-enough call against the Cubs to throw a spectacular tirade, kicking dirt on umpire Mark Wegner and kicking his hat into left field. It cost him a four-game suspension. Media coverage of the day shifted from Zambrano-Barrett to Piniella. And, starting the next day, the Cubs won five of their next six games to launch a major-league-best 35-18 run that forged a first-place tie with the Brewers on Aug. 1.
Less than two months after assuming his season was over and concerned about whether his career was next, former Cubs ace Kerry Wood completed a remarkable comeback and was greeted with a standing ovation for his 2007 debut. He pitched a scoreless seventh inning in a game the Cubs already trailed by four. It was an emotional boost for a team that also wound up with a bullpen boost during the final two months, with Wood becoming more effective the more he pitched in his new role down the stretch.
One night after blowing a 4-1 lead and suffering a spirit-bruising, extra-inning loss that knocked them out of first place, the Cubs held on in a strange and dangerous ninth inning for a fist-pumping, tide-turning victory that launched the 10-2 run that put them in the division driver's seat. The 10th-inning loser Tuesday, Ryan Dempster, took over a 3-1 game in the ninth and gave up a leadoff single on a routine grounder that caromed off first base into right field, followed by a triple. But Dempster stranded the runner by getting a grounder to third, then a bad-hop 3-6-1 double play. ''You have to think the worm has turned,'' manager Lou Piniella said afterward.
The Cubs' long and surreal road to the playoffs this year included tirades and fistfights, bad fits and worse starts, good Z, bad Z, a lot of pitching, a little (very little) power, a turnstile approach to the catching position, 31 come-from-behind victories, 39 come-from-ahead losses, 68 games decided by one or two runs and, in the end, 30 cases of champagne uncorked on a September night in Cincinnati. Along the way, 10 games stood out for their significance:
The worst ninth-inning meltdown of the season -- five runs and a walk-off hit before Ryan Dempster or Scott Eyre could manage even a second out -- was the ugly capper on a 2-5 road trip through Philadelphia and New York that featured three blown saves and a bullpen ERA of 10.26. It prompted a decision from manager Lou Piniella to convert Dempster, the closer, back into a starter -- until Piniella reversed course three days later. More important, Carlos Marmol was recalled from the minors the next day and has had the most significant influence on the team's turnaround since then, not only as a stabilizing force in the bullpen but as the best relief pitcher in the league since then.
In the opener of their final homestand of the season, the Cubs were on the verge of falling back into a tie for first with the Brewers. They trailed the Reds 6-4 in the bottom of the ninth before Ryan Theriot led off with a walk, Derrek Lee singled, Aramis Ramirez tripled home the tying runs, Daryle Ward was walked intentionally and Mark DeRosa lashed a ball into the middle of a five-man infield that second baseman Brandon Phillips couldn't handle as the winning run scored. Two days later, the Cubs walked off again in the bottom of the ninth on the way to a 5-1 homestand that gave them a season-high 3½-game lead with two weeks to play.
Sidelined for a week because of a neck injury, Cubs All-Star Derrek Lee came off the bench in the eighth inning to hit a grand slam off Boone Logan, capping a six-run inning and setting the tone for the Cubs' 5-1 season series against the White Sox. It was the only home series the Cubs played during a grueling 17-day stretch that included East Coast and West Coast trips on both sides of the Sox series.
The crossroads moment of the season began with a five-run fifth inning against Carlos Zambrano that included a boneheaded throwing error by catcher Michael Barrett, leading to a dugout confrontation that escalated into shoving and, eventually, a fistfight in the clubhouse that left Barrett with black eyes and a split lip. An already-disappointing season appeared on the brink of another long summer. Instead, Barrett got a one-way ticket out of town, traded to the Padres less than three weeks later, and Zambrano became the most dominant pitcher in baseball for the next two months as the Cubs became contenders.
After getting swept in an ugly series at Florida to delay what appeared to be inevitable and raise fears among fans of a historic, final-week collapse, the Cubs took care of business in their series opener at Cincinnati behind seven scoreless innings from Carlos Zambrano to clinch their first playoff berth since 2003. They had to wait an hour after their game until the Padres beat the Brewers to make it official.
Alfonso Soriano's home run leading off the game -- one of his 12 this season -- was all the Cubs could muster against Javier Vazquez and the Sox' bullpen until Ryan Theriot laid down a perfect suicide-squeeze bunt on an 0-1 pitch with one out in the top of the ninth to send Angel Pagan home with the go-ahead run. The Cubs finished off a three-game sweep of the Sox the next day, the start of a seven-game winning streak that pushed their record to the .500 mark for the first time since May 10.
Friday, June 29
With the division-leading Brewers in town for the Cubs' first big test of their fledgling turnaround, the Cubs survived a five-run first, fought back to make it 5-3 through eight innings, then won it with a three-run ninth that included a walk-off, two-run homer by Aramis Ramirez. The game played out against the emotional backdrop of outfielder Cliff Floyd's ailing father watching the game under doctor's supervision from a Wrigley Field suite. It was the last game C.C. Floyd would see his son play. He died six weeks later at a Chicago hospital.