Chicago Cubs History: Ranking the Theo Epstein era’s top 10 moments

Chicago Cubs: We enter our postseason moments, including crazy games and more grand slams

#7. Clinching the 2017 NLDS against the Washington Nationals – 10.12.17

The team’s last postseason series win came in the 2017 NLDS against a very good Nationals team. In a back and forth five-game series, the defending champion Cubs prevailed. Game 5 was a wild one at Nationals Park, ending in a high-scoring 9-8 win. It looked grim early as the Nationals took a 4-1 lead in the second, but the Cubs chipped away thanks to some timely hits and Nationals miscues, and they eventually took the lead. The Cubs would open up leads of 8-4 and 9-6, but Dusty Baker’s Nationals would not go away. A big double play ball off the bat of Adam Lind, followed by Willson Contreras picking off Jose Lobaton in the eighth helped the Cubs preserve a precarious 9-8 lead. Closer Wade Davis sailed smoothly in the ninth, eventually striking out Bryce Harper to end the game and series. It was a near five hours of torture, but Cubs fans were used to heart-pounding postseason games on the road. This marked the first time in Cubs history the team won a postseason series three years in a row.

#6. Miguel Montero NLCS Game 1 grand slam against the Lost Angeles Dodgers – 10.16.16

Here is a postseason moment that is not from a series-clinching game. Miguel Montero’s pinch-hit heroics in the first game of the 2016 NLCS will go down in history. One could argue it is the biggest, or at least most exciting, home run in Cubs postseason history. It was the bottom of the eighth in Game 1, score tied at three. The Cubs had just lost a 3-1 lead in the top of the eighth and were looking to take it back. They loaded the bases against veteran Joe Blanton, and Montero came up with two outs. Blanton got ahead 0-2 before delivering a flat slider to Montero, which he crushed to the back of the right field bleachers. Wrigley Field was shaking as the veteran catcher rounded the bases. The crowd was still celebrating when Dexter Fowler swung at the first pitch of his at bat and hit a solo shot off the digital boards in the right field corner. Cubs won 8-4 and took a 1-0 series lead.

Now for our top five!