Cubs clinch first playoff berth since 2020 with win over Pirates

PITTSBURGH — Champagne erupted in spurts around the visiting clubhouse at PNC Park as Cubs players, coaches, and support staff doused each other in celebration. There were sneak attacks and frontal assaults.

An already soaked Ian Happ opened his arms to embrace a stream of bubbly. Pete Crow-Armstrong returned a two-handed overhead pour. Dansby Swanson shook his hair and sent droplets flying. Daniel Palencia wrapped a “W” flag around his shoulders like a cape. Matthew Boyd and Justin Turner huddled in a plastic-covered corner to light cigars, and pretty soon fresh stogies were circulating the room and filling it with a slight haze.

Just when the commotion seemed to be dying down, someone shouted, “We’ve got more!” to raucous cheers. Two more cases of champagne appeared in the center of the room.

“It’s important to feel this,” Happ said, wiping champagne from his face. “It’s important to feel what you’ve worked for. The guys that have done it, the guys who have seen it, you know what you’re working towards, you know your goal. And so for all the young guys that get to experience this and do it, it means more.”

The Cubs clinched a postseason berth with a 8-4 win against the Pirates on Wednesday, sweeping the three-game set to officially end a four-year playoff drought. But it had been even longer since the Cubs had celebrated a trip to the playoffs with full-blown champagne showers.

When they last clinched a postseason, in 2020, they were under COVID-19 restrictions. And in 2018, they opted for a more simple toast. They’d planned to save the big hurrah when they clinched the division, but then they fell to the wild card.

So, as the team stood encircled by plastic-tarped lockers Wednesday, bottles waiting to be popped, Happ was the only player who’d been around the last time the Cubs were in that formation. He was a natural choice to address the team.

“Happer said the last time he got to celebrate this was 2017,” Boyd said. “And when you’re in it, you think it’s going to happen every year. And the reality is, this is really hard to do. You could hear the emotion in his voice, and how much this means to him. It means so much to all of us.

“And we’re not done yet.”

That sentiment echoed around the room. The Cubs had loftier goals than simply making the playoffs. They wanted a deep run, a World Series title.

“Hopefully it’s just the start,” Nico Hoerner said. “But it’s still a huge milestone along the way. And what an awesome group to share it with.”

Four and a half years ago, the Cubs dismantled their last championship core. This was their first postseason berth with the re-imagined group that sprouted from that teardown, and first with president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer in charge, after he’d stood by Theo Epstein’s side for the last run.

The road to get there had its false hope and dashed expectations, close calls and shocking twists. It still took two seasons of below-.500 baseball, a near-miss in 2023, and a seven-week slump in 2024 that the team never quite erased.

This year, the Cubs boasted one of the best run-scoring offenses in the majors in the first half of the season. And though that group cooled off after the All-Star break, the Cubs still entered Wednesday with the fourth-best record in MLB, buoyed by its second-half pitching.

“All the pictures in my office are of moments like this,” Hoyer said, “with the guys in the office, with the players, with the coaching staff. It’s why you do this. It’s why you work as hard as you do, it’s why you prepare, so you can celebrate with these guys. You hope to celebrate as many times as you can in any given year. But it never gets old.”

So, even with goals to still achieve in the regular season – the division race still hasn’t been officially decided, and the Cubs will win home-field advantage if they can at least hold onto the top NL Wild Card spot – they embraced Wednesday’s celebration with gusto.

“I didn’t think I’d be so cold,” said a shirtless Crow-Armstrong, his teeth chattering behind a grin as he stood in champagne-soaked socks and slides. “My feet are cold and it’s making my upper body cold.

“But I pictured this … I was just picturing being able to give everybody a hug and let them know I appreciate them.”

The Cubs claimed the victory Wednesday with a late offensive push against the Pirates bullpen. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, and the Pirates’ Oneil Cruz battling in a full count, a “Let’s go Cubs” chant rose from the visiting fans.

Cruz poked a routine fly ball the other way, and Happ squeezed his glove for the final, postseason-clinching out.

“When the ball went up to left field, I was happy it went to him,” manager Craig Counsell said. “No question about it.”