Faithful, Too: “Game 26 W…According to Texts”

Faithful mostly consists of game-by-game entries courtesy of King and Stewart O’Nan, with some exceptions. Those exceptions came in the form of e-mail exchanges sent between the two of them throughout the season. Some were to vent. Some were to celebrate. In the spirit of those technological communications comes today’s entry for the Cubs’ two-game sweep of the Dodgers Wednesday night. An entry that was not pre-planned.

After finishing a meal and walking about a nearby park in my neighborhood, I received the above picture with a text of “Ayoooo”. Wouldn’t you know it, my old friend Chris, a diehard baseball fan and lifelong New York Mets supporter, was at Wrigley last night. Inspiration came quick. After I responded with a “Let’s go cubs!”, I implored him to text me with his thoughts throughout the rest of the game, and privately promised myself not to check in on the scores myself. Just wanted to let him fill me in along the way. His texts are featured below, unedited:

BOTTOM OF THE 4TH

CHRIS

7:11pm – Swanson with a single up the middle

7:17pm – PCA 3-run HR!!!

7:17pm – Cubs 3, Dodgers 2

JUSTIN

7:23pm – Keep em coming! Whatever takes you got. Use your expertise! Lol

TOP OF THE 5TH

CHRIS

7:25pm – Bottom of the order coming through for the Dodgers again. Two men on for Shohei with nobody out.

7:25pm – Annnnd he popped out to LF.

7:28pm – Mookie ties it up with a line drive to left. Looks like we’re in for another back and forth slug fest.

7:29pm – Teoscar two run HR. Game has flipped fast.

BOTTOM OF THE 5TH

CHRIS

7:45pm – Cubbies have exploded for 4 runs in an immediate clap back! 7-5 Cubs!

TOP OF THE 6TH

CHRIS

7:52pm – Pages HR. And around and around we go. 7-6 Cubs.

7:57pm – Shoehei up, men on 2nd and 3rd. Two out.

7:58pm – Popped out to Swanson, still 7-6!

TOP OF THE 8TH

CHRIS

8:14pm – PCA early Gold Glove candidate. Bank on that.

JUSTIN

8:24pm – Oh I’ve predicted an all-star season this year. I love him. Thanks for him! [lol emoji]

CHRIS

8:26pm – [neutral face emoji] (EDITOR’S NOTE: Pete Crow-Armstrong was in the Mets’ organization before being traded a few years ago for half a season of Javier Baez. A brutal trade in hindsight for the Mets.)

BOTTOM OF THE 8TH

CHRIS

8:36pm – PCA doing his thing. Line drive single. Steals second. Takes third on a wild pitch. No one out in the 8th.

TOP OF THE 9TH

CHRIS

8:41pm – Hodge in to close it out

8:41pm – Facing the 9 hitter and then…top of the Dodgers order

8:44pm – Shohei strikes out swinging! Down to the final out Mookie up.

I didn’t get a text for 12 minutes before finally receiving a GIF of a white flag with a beautiful upper-case W, indicating that the Cubs had won (see pic at the top). Cubs are now 16-10 against the toughest teams in baseball (and the Athletics). Now they get slightly easier fare, but those are often the teams to watch out for. Let’s hope they can continue their surge into the weekend against a struggling Phillies team. Baby blue unis on Friday! But for now, a day off…