Head groundskeeper Dan Kiermaier was the busiest man at Wrigley Field on Saturday, maneuvering his crew through a series of rain showers that began in the morning and continued through the beginning of the Cubs’ 3-2 win against the Toronto Blue Jays.
Tarp on, tarp off. Tarp on, tarp off.
It was the kind of day that makes Chicago such a great summer city and why we endure six months of winter to live here.
Jorge López did double duty as groundskeeper and closer, earning his first save with the Cubs and helping get the field ready for play.
The madness began after Ian Happ homered on the first pitch leading off the bottom of the first inning. The Cubs and Blue Jays endured a 39-minute delay in the top of the second, and after Justin Steele retired the final two batters and Nico Hoerner grounded out to start the bottom of the inning, another rain shower began and Kiermaier and his crew came out again.
Members of the Blue Jays bullpen ventured out on the field during the second delay to watch fans build a beer snake in the center-field bleachers. Some fans stood in the concourse watching the Bears game on their smartphones. Cubs historian Ed Hartig went into his files and quickly noted four prior Cubs games featured at least four rain delays, including a game suspended by darkness on April 21, 1976, that featured five delays over two days.
Before we could ponder the deadline anxiety four rain delays would bring, the sun came back out, and López grabbed a squeegee on his way to the bullpen. He helped remove some of the puddles in left field, then took a bow from the left-field bleacherites before going to the pen.
After a 16-minute delay, play began again. The beer snake soon disappeared, Dansby Swanson doubled on the first pitch off Chris Bassitt and fans returned to their natural habitats.
Manager Craig Counsell decided not to take any risks with Steele, removing him after two innings and 36 pitches and making it into a bullpen day, in which six relievers would get them the win.
Cubs great Ryne Sandberg appeared in a video on the left-field video board in the bottom of the fourth, announcing to WSCR-AM 670’s Danny Parkins on Thursday that he was cancer-free after nearly seven months of treatment for prostate cancer. The crowd of 38,755 stood and applauded, and a live shot of Sandberg and his wife, Margaret, was shown on the video board. The “no cheering in the press box” rule was temporarily suspended.
After Swanson singled in the bottom of the fourth, Pete Crow-Armstrong, wearing cleats with “Ryno” and Sandberg’s No. 23 written on them, dragged a bunt single past Bassitt to put two on. With two outs, Michael Busch hit an arching fly that backed center fielder Daulton Varsho onto the warning track. Daulton made a leaping attempt in the wet vines, but the ball glanced off his mitt as Busch scampered to third with a two-run triple, giving the Cubs a 3-0 lead.
Varsho’s father, Gary Varsho, was a Cubs teammate of Sandberg’s for three seasons, and both were part of an 11-error game at Wrigley against the San Diego Padres that I covered on April 29, 1989. The former grounds-crew foreman, Roger O’Conner, told me that night the infield hadn’t been watered beforehand because of a threat of rain. Sandberg committed two errors for only the third time in his career and told us afterward that the field was “as hard as a rock, (and) if that’s how the field is going to be, someone’s going to break a nose.”
David Letterman, coincidentally, was at that crazy game, while Stephen Colbert, his replacement on “The Late Show,” was at Friday’s Cubs-Jays game.
Baseball symmetry at Wrigley. Catch it.
The sun kept shining as the Blue Jays scored a run in the seventh on Varsho’s bunt single past Drew Smyly, pulling to within two runs. The Cubs threatened in the seventh when Blue Jays pitcher Ryan Yarbrough committed two errors on one play, sending Crow-Armstrong to third. But Crow-Armstrong was picked off and caught in a rundown, ending his perfect 23-for-23 record on steal attempts.
The Cubs held their two-run lead into the ninth when López came in to close instead of Héctor Neris, who blew a three-run ninth-inning lead Friday and was booed off the mound. Counsell later said Neris threw too many pitches Friday. The Cubs already had 22 blown saves, and anxiety crept in among jittery fans.
The sun hid behind some clouds and a light rain began to fall as some fans began to exit. Addison Barger homered to lead off the inning, leading to a “Let’s go, Blue Jays” chant from the Toronto fans who decided to stick around.
López caught George Springer looking on a called third strike, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. strolled to the plate as the Blue Jays’ last gasp. López threw three straight sliders past Guerrero, ending the game and giving the Cubs the series win.
Fans sang in the rain, and by the time they were done the sun came back out.
López talked afterward about the second chance the Cubs gave him after the New York Mets released him for the crime of throwing his glove. His 16-inning scoreless streak had ended, but he got the save and the Cubs won.
I told López he deserved two paychecks for his work — one for pitching and one for working on the grounds crew.
López laughed and told me it was already taken care of.
“It’s in my contract,” he said.
Another summer day at Wrigley Field was over, and the forecast for Sunday looked good.
