Pressing Our Luck

Our good friends from college, RH and C, are also back here in Illinois. After some discussion in our group text, we decided to see the Cubs-Dodgers game together. However, rather than get seats in advance, we opted to park in the remote lot (free), take the shuttle to the ballpark (also free), and walk-up to the ticket window at Wrigley Field (no service fees). This way if the weather was bad or there were no good tickets left, we could just find a sports bar nearby to watch the game without having to commit any money ahead of time.

Yep, we got tickets!

Turns out the weather tonight was beautiful, and we were able to get pretty good seats on the first base side, not too far from where we sat for Saturday's game. But considering that they were playing the Dodgers in a continuation of the series they started in Japan to open the season (and lost both games), and our in-person win streak currently only stands at 1, I didn't want to jinx our chances by being too hopeful about a W.

College roomies

Starting lineups

We were excited to see Shota Imanaga pitch tonight's game

What we also didn't realize was that the Pantone 294 group had organized a "takeover" for tonight's game, so we were surrounded by a large horde of loud, obnoxious Dodger fans since the visitors' dugout is on this side. Boo. 😖

Pretty cool to see Imanaga pitch to the Dodgers' leadoff batter and fellow countryman, Shohei Ohtani, although Shohei getting a base hit was not so cool. (Shota struck out Shohei the next two times, though.) With two outs and two runners on base, Tommy Edman homered to center. Dodgers 3-0.

First pitch

In the Cubs' half of the 1st inning, they went through their whole line-up, scoring 5 runs - woohoo! In the next inning, Andy Pages hit a solo home run to bring the Dodgers within 1. The score remained 5-4 until the bottom of the 5th when Pete Crow-Armstrong blasted one to right-center, also scoring Dansby Swanson. Cubs 7-4. 

The Dodgers answered in the 6th with a home run from Will Smith and did even more damage in the top of the 7th, scoring 5 runs to take the lead 10-7. 😠

But after what happened in the D-Backs game on Friday when the Cubs scored 6 runs in the bottom of the 8th after giving up 10 runs in the top half, we knew not to count these guys out. With Ian Happ on base, Kyle Tucker hit a home run to bring the Cubs within reach, 10-9. 

In the 9th, the Dodgers were retired in order, but then the first two Cub batters made outs. Down to their final out, Miguel Amaya homered out to center field to tie the game! Pandemonium!

When playing extra innings, each team starts with a base runner on second base, but the Dodgers could not bring theirs home. In the bottom of the 10th, Ian Happ singled the very first pitch he saw out to right field, and with Vidal Bruján's speed, he was easily able to score from second. Walk-off RBI! What an exciting game to be at! 🙌 

Time to sing the song again! And thankfully, the salty Dodger fans around us were finally quiet! 🤣 

The highlights are definitely worth another watch...