(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
 Cubs shutout Pirates in NL Wild Card-game
Nederlands
 PITTSBURGH, Pennsyvania (USA) -
The Chicago Cubs shutout the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-0 on Wednesday-evening (October 7) in the National League Wild Card Game presented by Budweiser.
Jake Arrieta went the distance for the Cubs and dominated.
He struckout eleven batters, walked none and gave up only four basehits.
With this victory, the Cubs not only won their first postseason-game since 2003, it also advanced to the National League Division Series.
The Cubs open that best-of-five Series on Friday at the St. Louis Cardinals.
In the other NLDS, the New York Mets meet the Los Angeles Dodgers with Dutch National Team-pitcher Kenley Jansen as closer.
Jansen is the lone Dutch player now in the postseason after Didi Gregorius got eliminated on Tuesday with the New York Yankees.
Also, former Netherlands Team-player Hensley Meulens, the Hitting Coach of the San Francisco Giants and Manager of the Dutch Team during the upcoming Premier12, is not in the Play-Offs this year.
The Giants were eliminated in the regular season by the Dodgers and thus dethroned as World Series-champion.
For the Cubs, this was their first postseason-game since the 2008 National League Division Series, when they were swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Pirates hosted the Wild Card-game for the third consecutive year.
They won in 2013 vs. the Cincinnati Reds, but lost last year to the San Francisco Giants, who went on to win the World Series.
It was a game between two clubs with a very rich history.
While being two of the oldest baseball-clubs, they never met before in a postseason-game.
The Chicago Cubs were established in 1871 and play in the National League since 1876, the year the league was founded.
The Pittsburgh Pirates were established in 1882 and play in the National League since 1887.
In the regular season, the Cubs finished with 97 wins, the Pirates with 98.
The Cubs finished the season with eight consecutive victories and that is something the club didn't do since 1884!
Back then, 131 years ago, the club was known as Chicago White Stockings and closed the season with nine wins in a row.
Led by new Manager Joe Maddon, the Cubs won 48 games on the road, the most since winning a record 49 during the 1945 season.
The Pirates finished their season with 11 wins of their final 15 games.
For the sixth time in its 129-year history and for the first time since 1991, the Pirates won 98 games.
...Dexter Fowler with Rick van den Hurk during the...
...2011 European Big League Tour in Amsterdam (Netherlands)...
...Tonight, Fowler was 3-fof-4 with a homerun and scored three runs...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Cubs-starter Jake Arrieta was 22-6 in the regular season, winning the most games by a Cubs-pitcher since Ferguson Jenkins win 24 in 1971.
The righthander struckout 236 batters.
On August 30, he threw a No-Hitter against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Pirates-starter Gerrit Cole was 19-8 in the regular season and struckout 202 batters.
Before the game, during the player introductions, Jung Ho Kang joined his Pirates-teammates, while sitting in a wheelchair.
The rookie from South Korea is a fan favorite and is very popular, but his season ended on September 17.
On that day, in the first inning, of a game against the Cubs (!), the short stop turned a double play, but sustained a severe injury when Chris Coghlan slid hard into Kang.
The Korean player was underwent surgery later that night to repair a displaced tibial plateau fracture and a lateral meniscus.
When the Cubs-players were announced, the Pirate-fans reacted with boos when it was Coghlan's turn, while Kang was cheered loudly when he was introduced.
By the way, the Pirates established a single-season attendance record this year with 2,498,596, breaking the mark set last year.
The Cubs opened the score quickly when Dexter Fowler led off with a single in the first inning off of Gerrit Cole, stole second base, then scored on a single by Kyle Schwarber.
In the third inning, the same two players contributed again.
With one out, Fowler singled, then Schwarber homered to make it 3-0.
And in the fifth, with one out, Fowler homered lifting the lead to 4-0.
In 2011, Fowler was one of the players who participated in the European Big League Tour organized by Dutch pitcher Rick van den Hurk, who then pitched for the Baltimore Orioles.
Fowler then played for the Colorado Rockies.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Pirates got a chance to do something back, getting the bases loaded with one out.
Travis Snider led off with a single off of Jake Arrieta, who then hit Josh Harrison with a pitch with one out.
An error on a force play-grounder by Andrew McCutchen then loaded the bases, but the inning ended when Starling Marte grounded into a double play.
In the top of the seventh, Tony Watson became the third pitcher for Pittsburgh.
He got two quick outs, then hit Jake Arrieta (who had hit two batters himself) with a pitch.
When Arrieta said something to Watson, it triggered a bench-clearing, as the players of both teams did some shouting and pushing, as a reaction.
It led to the ejection of Pittsburgh's first baseman Sean Rodriguez, who was send away by Home Plate Umpire Jeff Nelson.
Rodriguez already had left the game in the bottom of the third inning when a pinch-hitter batted for him.
Oh, maybe you know this trivial fact already.
In the 1989 movie Back To The Future Part II (directed by Robert Zemeckis), Marty McFly (played by Michael J. Fox) ends up in 2015 with Doc (played by Christopher Lloyd) and Jennifer (played by Elisabeth Shue).
In October of that year, McFly learns from Old Terry (played by Charles Fleischer) that the Cubs had won the World Series..........
(October 7)
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