NLDS: How the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field worked in tandem to force a winner-take-all Game 5

The Chicago Cubs were getting blanked. 

Earlier this week, the Milwaukee Brewers had just taken a 2-0 lead in the National League Division Series by outscoring the Cubs 16-6 in Milwaukee. The Cubs’ offense was nowhere to be found and the starting pitching left, which had helped lead the Cubs to a 90-win season, was faltering.

The Cubs needed some magic. They needed a lift.

Home is where the heart is to some. Home is where the magic was for the Cubs.

They’ve forced a winner-take-all Game 5 in the NLDS in Milwaukee on Saturday. The Cubs took advantage of playoff baseball at Wrigley Field, just as they did last week in the Wild Card Series.

There weren’t big moments on Thursday, only moments that had yet to be seized. The Cubs nearly took them all in a 6-0 win that felt like a much larger margin. That’s because a team and its loyal fanbase worked in tandem to force a decisive Game 5.

"I've never seen a baseball game like that," Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. "That was just amazing what they did tonight."

Don’t believe Counsell? Ask the opposition.

"This crowd affected the game the last two games," Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. "It affected the way we played for sure."

The Cubs made Brewers starter Freddy Peralta uncomfortable enough in the first inning that he gave up the first big moment: a three-run bomb by Ian Happ. This was particularly impressive as Freddy Peralta has a 9-3 record with an ERA of 3.21 in 22 career appearances vs. the Cubs.

The struggling Happ had come into Thursday waiting for his postseason moment, too. He found it. Counsell said the left fielder deserved it.

If Happ deserved it, so did starter Matthew Boyd. He had a 12-1 record at Wrigley Field this season. After his Game 1 start ended in a disaster, he rebounded on regular rest and kept the Brewers at bay. Boyd fed off the energy at Wrigley well before he tossed the first pitch of the game.

"Just right from the jump, I mean, you're going out there to jog, to warm up and you’re jogging out to warm up and the bleachers are just going crazy for you," Boyd said. "To look up and the moon's already up, it's dark out there and the fans have your back 40 minutes to game time, I mean, there's nothing like that. It's really special. They create such an environment here it makes it a great place to play when you're a Cubby and it's a hard place to play when you're not."

Those fans kept going wild as Daniel Palencia relieved Boyd and got out of a jam with a single pitch in the fifth inning by getting Jackson Chourio to fly out to third base with two runners on.

There can’t be enough said about how Palencia has thrived in that middle reliever role at Wrigley Field. When the speakers blast his walk-in music "Gasolina," and the energy remains high. He has capitalized by getting key outs. That energy continued.

After that, the Cubs had to put the pressure on.

They finally did so with late-inning offense. Michael Busch hit his third home run of the series in the eighth inning. That came after Kyler Tucker made it a 5-0 game with a solo homer in the seventh.

In the sixth, the Cubs finally broke through with an RBI single by Matt Shaw. Thursday was a breakthrough for Shaw, who was 2-3 with two singles, a walk and an RBI.

That offensive pressure allowed the energy to build. It eventually seized the Brewers.

"Momentum in baseball happens based on what's on the field, you know what I mean?" Murphy said. "The Cubs earned it. They had their backs against the wall and they played great. These last two games, they pitched great, they played great, they played great defense."

After two games of struggles in Milwaukee, the Cubs got their mind and their game right. The Brewers made the Cubs work for it, but it’s impressive how the Cubs were able to force the Brewers to play their game.

"Offensively, we did a really nice job of putting pressure on them often. The crowd picked up on that," Counsell said. "They were awesome with it and we just made them uncomfortable. We just made every pitch uncomfortable."

The Brewers now return home uncomfortable.

After the Cubs played with their backs against the wall, facing elimination in the last two games, the Brewers are now facing elimination.

It remains to be seen how a young Brewers team handles the pressure.

"They’re built to be great and they played great in these two games," Murphy said. "But, we'll get into Game 5 in our place."

However, the Cubs don’t get to a Game 5 without winning Games 3 and 4.

That’s a testament to the magic Wrigley Field had on Thursday, with the full moon rising in right-center field, with three home run balls flying into the night sky and pitchers electrifying the crowd in key moments.

The Cubs thank the fans for that.

"They've been here every day," Happ said. "It doesn't matter if it's Tuesday in the middle of June, they're here. There's 40,000 people here. To give them that experience and to hear that roar was really special."

The Cubs now earned the chance to play another winner-take-all, do-or-die, high-stakes playoff game.

"We got the best fans in baseball and it was electric," Boyd said. "We've been feeding off them since April, but tonight was another level and that was super special."