Faithful, Too: "Game 22 W - The Agony of Victory"

LOCATION: Geneva, Illinois.

Beautiful little town a little over an hour outside of Chicago. Century-old windmill. Walking path. Japanese Garden (albeit closed at the moment). Grabbed lunch with my girlfriend and grabbed some dessert on the way out. I looked at my phone to see the Cubs were winning 2-1 over the DBacks heading into the bottom of the 7th.

It had been a fairly uneventful game based on my tracking up to that point. As m'lady drove us back to the city, I checked my phone again to see that Happ was up with the bases loaded. Moments later, I saw that he hit a home run. Wonderful! Cubs were now up 6-1, and this late in the game no one could come back...or could they. After all, the last time the Cubs faced the DBacks they were up 6-2 going into the 8th...and lost 10-6. Surely this nightmarish choke-job couldn't happen again?

Reader, for a long while there yesterday afternoon driving home, it appeared to be the case. I checked my phone later and saw that while the Cubs scored again in the 7th to make it 7-1, the DBacks had since loaded the bases against the recently-returned (normally reliable Jordan Wicks on three straight hits! Then I saw that they hit a Grand Slam! I jokingly laughed it off.

Then, in true horror-movie fashion, I looked at the app again and saw that the DBacks were up 8-7! The Cubs had choked again! Now at Wrigley. Oh my, God. I put my phone back down and didn't look at it again until we were closer to home. I found that the DBacks score three more times that inning to make it 11-7, but in the bottom of the 8th I discovered Carson Kelly had hit his second homer of the game to make it 11-10.

A little while after that, we arrived home. I turned the Marquee Sports Network on to see it was on a commercial break, or maybe that the game had ended. Thanks to the app, I was able to rewind a fair bit so I could catch up without the game being spoiled. Cue the comeback.

With one out, Happ singled. Then Tuck Temporary came to the plate...and crushed an absolute no-doubter to the right-field bleachers! Cubs re-took the lead! Then Seiya said "see ya'" to a ball in the team's next at-bat and the Cubs were suddenly up 13-11. The Cubs held true and actually won another historic game.

• Cubs became the 7th team since 1900 to allow 10 runs in an inning and still win.
• Both teams scored 21 runs over two innings, tying for the most runs scored in two consecutive innings in Cubs history.

8th Inning Totals:

Diamondbacks: 10 runs, 2 homers, 1 double, 5 singles, 2 walks

Cubs: 6 runs, 3 homers, 4 singles, 1 walk, 1 hit-by pitch

Wild, wild, wild. Can't imagine the vibes at Wrigley, but I was happy to separate from that game as much as I could (thanks to the new Tumpe as well as the old Tumpe/TV on the Radio albums we listened to heading home). Too much stress for an April game. Thankfully only...140 to go?!