CHICAGO -- Destiny seldom announces its arrival.
Sometimes it just drops in unexpectedly, in the middle of the outfield. Sometimes a blooper off Anthony Rizzo's bat falls in between three Nationals at Wrigley Field and makes everyone start to wonder if anything is possible all over again for the Cubs.
The Cubs weren't necessarily better than the Nationals in Monday's Game 2 of the National League Division Series, but they were definitely luckier in a perfectly imperfect 2-1 victory.
They did everything they could to lose: Players made errors in the field and on the bases while manager Joe Maddon pulled starting pitcher Jose Quintana too soon. They won a sloppy game anyway, the go-ahead run scoring when Rizzo's single against reliever Oliver Perez found the part of short-left field Nationals manager Dusty Baker called "never-never land" to bring home pinch runner Leonys Martin.
"It's just who we are," Rizzo said. "We all believe in each other."
Can you believe Baker decided to pitch to Rizzo with first base open in the eighth inning of a 1-1 playoff game?
Cubs fans mildly booed Baker when he was introduced before Monday's game. Today, they should give Dusty a standing ovation for his role in helping the Cubs take a 2-1 series lead. Martin stood on second and Willson Contreras, potent but hardly as proven as Rizzo, was on deck with the left-handed Perez on the mound. Then for reasons Baker came to regret, perhaps the entire offseason, he dared Rizzo to beat the Nationals.
And that's exactly what happened.
"You've got to pick one of the two," Baker said. "It was a clean hit, but it was a blooper and I thought that we had a chance to catch it."
Nobody caught it. Rizzo's blooper didn't travel as far as Bryce Harper's Game 2 home run but served the same purpose. It beat the opponent, which is what clutch players do. After delivering again, Rizzo shouted in the direction of the Nationals dugout: "Respect me."
Who doesn't now?
If this victory was about respect for Rizzo, for others it offered redemption -- and, in Kyle Schwarber's case, relief.
Carl Edwards Jr. pumped his fist three times after a 1-2-3 eighth that included a strikeout of Harper, who had taken Edwards deep two days earlier.
Ben Zobrist, playing second base in place of Javy Baez, made amends for an error by hitting a double that broke up Max Scherzer's no-hitter and by making a diving stop.
Albert Almora Jr., the forgotten man in the Cubs outfield, came up big again with a pinch-hit single to drive in Zobrist.
But no Cub had a heavier burden lifted than Schwarber, whom teammates vowed to pick up after his blunder in the sixth.
Daniel Murphy hit a fly ball that Schwarber misplayed, dropped, kicked and probably autographed by the time he recovered to throw it back into the infield. Maddon then yanked Quintana for reliever Pedro Strop, who gave up a run-scoring double to Ryan Zimmerman to give the Nats a 1-0 and make Schwarber the loneliest guy in Chicago.
"There really needs to be nothing said when he comes in the dugout, and there really wasn't much of anything said," Rizzo said. "We pick him up and we pick each other up. That's what makes us a really good group."
When Scherzer induced Rizzo into a double-play grounder to end the sixth, he pumped his fist. As much as Chicagoans questioned why Maddon pulled Quintana, Nats fans wondered about Baker's decision to yank Scherzer after 98 pitches. Scherzer wanted this one badly and probably deserved it, and then the Nationals bullpen failed him. As did his manager.
This felt like the Nats' best shot at taking this series. Now they must face Jake Arrieta in Tuesday's Game 4, and Scherzer's success coming off a sore hamstring bodes well for the Cubs. The moment feels like the kind Arrieta relishes in the playoffs, which he is savoring more than ever.
"Just trying to take everything in, look around a little bit more," a reflective Arrieta said. "Trying to capture some mental images of Wrigley and the fan base and my teammates. If it's my last time in this uniform, it's going to be special, that's for sure."
This Cubs season is starting to look more special every day.
Sports on 10/10/2017