The Rockies are moving on after historic win at Wrigley Field

CHICAGO – The night Chicago died.

That’s what Oct. 2, 2018, was for the Chicago Cubs, courtesy of YOUR Colorado Rockies. In 13 grueling, hair-whitening, nailbiting, ulcer-inducing innings, the Rockies beat the Cubs 2-1 at Wrigley Field. Tony Wolters’ single in the top of the 13th brought in Trevor Story, and Scott Oberg held it from there to give the Rockies the National League Wild Card.

It’s on to Milwaukee now for the Rocks, for Game 1 of the NLDS. It was the longest postseason game in Wrigley Field history, and the Rockies walked off the field vanquishers of a team nobody – certainly not the pro-Cubs ESPN broadcast crew that called Story’s two-out single in the 13th that started the winning rally a “win for the Cubs” – believed could happen.

Sorry, national networks, but it’s Colorado-Milwaukee now, and the Cubs are going home.

Story got on base, and despite that being a win for the Cubs, he was advanced to third on a single to right by Gerardo Parra. Then, Wolters singled up the middle. Oberg struck out the side in the bottom of the 13th.

The other heroes for the Rockies in this one? Certainly, starter Kyle Freeland was one. In his first postseason appearance, the kid from Colorado threw 6.2 innings of shutout ball. The Rockies held a 1-0 lead until the bottom of the eighth, thanks to Nolan Arenado’s first-inning sacrifice fly. The Cubs evened it, and had other chances to put it away – especially in the 11th, with runners on first and second. But the Rockies’ bullpen just kept getting out of it.

Seunghwan Oh came on for the bottom of the 10th and got a clean inning with an assist from a beautiful Arenado diving stop and throw.

The Rockies had a golden opportunity in the top of the 11th, getting a one-out single up the middle from Arenado and a two-out walk from Parra after Story just got underneath a hanging off-speed pitch. Desmond hit a grounder toward third but Bryant went to second with it and was unable to get Parra who hustled into second before the throw arrived. That loaded the bases for Dahl who swung at the first pitch and grounded out to first base.

Oh remained in the game for the bottom of the 11th and walked Baez on five pitches. Almore laid down a sac bunt to move him to second and the Rockies intentionally passed on Murphy. He jammed Contreras in the next at-bat with a 1-1 pitch to make it 1-2 but the Cubs catcher appeared to tweak a muscle on the play and stepped out for several minutes.

After the long delay, he got his groundball to third but in a strange play, Baez gave Arenado a bearhug on the tag and there was no chance to throw the ball to first for the inning-ending double play. Black argued for a while but eventually succumbed to the call on the field and decided to go to his bullpen once more, calling on Chris Rusin to face switch-and-pinch-hitting Victor Caratini, the last man on the Cubs bench.

With the winning run at second, Rusin got a groundball to first to send the game to a 12th inning. Ryan McMahon, who had just entered the game in a double-switch, fielded a hard hit ball on the play nicely.

Then came the lucky 13th. Rocktober is just getting started, while the Cubs are done.

Sorry, network executives.