Cubs History: Looking back at top five Cubs moments in 2020

Chicago Cubs: Despite the ending, there were some really cool moments in 2020 for the Northsiders.

It is natural to still be sour with the way the 2020 season ended for the Chicago Cubs. Despite winning the NL Central and having home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs, the Cubs lackluster offense caught up to them, and they were eliminated swiftly and quietly. That is not to say there were no fun or exciting moments in the 60-game 2020 season.

It was certainly weird considering no Cubs fans could witness any of the good moments in person since all stadiums had no fans in them due to the pandemic. Not to mention some fans could not see the games at all on the new Marquee Sports Network because of cable/regional restrictions. One can even argue this season does not really count, though it is still in the record books.

Some baseball is better than no baseball, right?

Regardless of the mixed feelings the fanbase has towards the current state of the team and the unorthodox season, lets look at the top five moments for the Chicago Cubs in 2020.

Chicago Cubs: First-year manager David Ross gave the ball to Kyle Hendricks on Opening Night at Wrigley…he made a good choice.

2020, a time where Opening Night is on July 24th. When David Ross announced that Kyle Hendricks was going to start game one, most people seemed to be okay with that choice. Yu Darvish was the other candidate, but Hendricks got the job. What he did against the Brewers that night was a thing of beauty.

9 IP, 0 Runs, 3 Hits, 0 Walks, 9 Strikeouts on 103 pitches. Cubs won 3-0.

The only three hits belonged to Orlando Arcia as Christian Yelich, Ryan Braun and Lorenzo Cain were kept completely off the bases. After the final out was recorded, Hendricks was met with a mob of congrats and, of course, a shower from the Gatorade cooler. When Hendricks exited the ballpark, he was greeted with “Kyle! Kyle!” chants from the Cubs fans hanging out on Waveland Avenue.

It was a great way to kick off the season and was particularly satisfying to do it against a division rival who had flipped the script on them the previous two seasons.

Chicago Cubs: In a game the Cubs needed, David Bote once again played the hero.

Seems pretty clear that David Bote has the “clutch gene” in him. On the night of August 17th, Bote added another bullet point to his clutch resume in a 5-4 win over the rival St. Louis Cardinals.

The Cubs were going through a pretty ugly skid. They once again were struggling to score and were on a four-game losing streak. In a 60-game season, those streaks are obviously a bigger deal. This evening, the game was the second of a doubleheader, which saw the team fall to the Cards 3-1. Trailing 4-1 in the nightcap in the sixth, it looked like another loss was in the works.

Not so fast. After Willson Contreras doubled in a run to make it 4-2, Bote stepped up with two on and two out. On a 1-0 pitch from Cardinals pitcher Tyler Webb, Bote drove the pitch deep into the centerfield batter’s eye for a go-ahead home run. Ironically it landed in a fairly similar spot as his famous grand slam against the Nationals back in 2018.

The bullpen would step in and shut down the Cardinals, and the Cubs went on to win fairly easy to break the four-game skid.

Chicago Cubs: The biggest home run of the season belongs to Jason Heyward, who defied the odds against one of baseball’s toughest relievers.

On September 12th, the Cubs looked to even the series against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park. They had dropped game one as the offense had gone missing yet again. Things were not looking good heading into the ninth. Down 2-0, the Cubs had three outs to get to All-Star closer Josh Hader.

After recording the first out, the Cubs got back-to-back singles from Javier Baez and Anthony Rizzo with Jason Heyward representing the go-ahead run. Hader is incredibly hard to hit as it is, but for a lefty against him? Even tougher. Going into that AB, Hader had given up just 26 hits and six home runs to lefties his entire career. Only one lefty ever (Cody Bellinger) had homered off him with two strikes.

In the words of Han Solo, “Never tell me the odds!”

On a 1-2 pitch, Heyward took a 95 MPH fastball down and on the inside corner and crushed it over the wall in right-center for a go-ahead three-run homer. The Cubs dugout went nuts as Heyward rounded the bases and passed by a flabbergasted Hader. Immediately after that, Ildemaro Vargas homered off Hader to make it 4-2.

The Cubs went on to win 4-2 as Craig Kimbrel notched the save. It felt like a big momentum swinger as they would head into the final stretch.

Chicago Cubs: The obvious number one choice goes out to a historical performance by Alec Mills.

A lot of fans on the afternoon of Sunday, September 13th, we’re probably just casually following the game against the Brewers in Milwaukee as they were more focused on the epic comeback win for the Bears in Detroit. Cubs were up double-digits and were in the makings of an incredibly easy win.

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The Bears game ended with just a few innings to go in the game. To the surprise of many who flipped over to the Cubs, Alec Mills had not given up a hit yet. It was 10-0 going into the bottom of the seventh and Mills was nine outs away from history. Suddenly this blowout was getting a bit more interesting to people who were not paying close attention while the Bears were playing.

Brewers got a walk but no hits in the seventh, then went real quietly in the eighth on two popouts and a groundout—three more outs to get. They added two more runs to make it 12-0 before Mills took the mound in the bottom of the ninth. The first batter popped out, followed by the second batter striking out swinging.

When Jace Peterson hit a routine grounder up the middle right to where Javier Baez was standing, and history was made, who gloved it and threw to Anthony Rizzo for the 27th out. Alec Mills, the college walk-on and fifth starter with only a handful of starts in the majors with a no-hitter. No runs, no hits, three walks, five strikeouts on 114 pitches—16th no-hitter in franchise history and the second in baseball in 2020. Ironically the only two no-hitters thrown in 2020 were by Chicago pitchers (Mills and Lucas Giolito for the Sox).

Those are my top-five moments in 2020. Some honorable mentions include: Yu Darvish shutting down White Sox to avoid the sweep, Javier Baez walks off Indians, outfielders all homering against Reds and Cubs sweep Indians in Cleveland.