CHICAGO — In Colorado’s dramatic 2-1 NL wild card win over the Cubs Tuesday night, the Rockies’ bullpen was near perfect.
The Cubs did score the tying run in the eighth inning but when it mattered most, the Rockies’ most reliable relievers didn’t blink, putting the Rockies into their first division series since 2009.
“These types of games are why you play,” said left-hander Chris Rusin, who tossed a scoreless inning. “It was next-man-up out there. When your name was called, the expectation was you were going to get those guys out. We did.”
The first of multiple key bullpen moments came after starter Kyle Freeland owned his October debut with 6 ⅔ innings of shutout baseball. With two outs and a runner on first in the seventh, Rockies manger Bud Black lifted Freeland in favor of right-hander Adam Ottavino.
Ottavino proceeded to throw a wild pitch on his first pitch, moving a runner to second. His initial lack of control was alarming as a walk and a catcher’s interference call on Drew Butera — on a groundball out that would have ended the inning — loaded the bases for Chicago.
But in his postseason debut, with the game in the balance, Ottavino reached back for the hardest pitch he’s thrown all season. The 97-mph heater fanned Jason Heyward to end the seventh inning, preserving a 1-0 Rockies’ lead.
Bullpen checkpoint, passed.
The eighth, however, was less fortunate for Ottavino. Black, who has shown unshakable belief in Ottavino all season, didn’t waiver from his faith in the right-hander, though Ottavino was struggling with his control.
“I just had so much adrenaline, that’s why I was yanking all those pitches at the beginning,” Ottavino said. “I felt too strong, too hopped up.”
Black’s faith paid off through the first couple batters in the eighth, which Ottavino set down quickly, but Chicago found life with a pair of two-out hits, the latter of which was a RBI double on a hanging slider by Javier Baez that tied the game at 1-1.
“My gut feeling was that fastball was the pitch there, but I second-guessed it because I had just thrown it to (Kris) Bryant with two strikes, and I thought maybe Baez would realize that,” Ottavino said. “So my thought process was to get it way off the plate or in the dirt, and obviously I just didn’t quite get it there.”
Wade Davis then did his part in the clutch to prevent the Cubs from taking the lead. Davis — who led the National League with 43 saves despite a career-high six blown opportunities — came on and fed Albert Almora a 2-2 curveball in the dirt to end the inning.
Consider that bullpen checkpoint partially passed.
The closer then worked around a one-out walk in the ninth to extend the game to extra innings. With Tuesday’s showing of 1⅓ scoreless innings, Davis continued his groove down the stretch, as he’s given up just one earned run in 19 ⅓ innings with 28 strikeouts since Aug. 12.
Another bullpen checkpoint passed.
The final steely performances came from Seunghwan Oh, Rusin and Scott Oberg in extra innings, all of whom were money. Oh worked a 1-2-3 10th and the 11th with a flair for the dramatic, working around two baserunners. Then Rusin and Oberg combined for the final 2⅓ innings to seal the win in the longest postseason game in Wrigley Field’s 104-year history.
“I wasn’t feeling much of the pressure,” said Oh, aka the Stone Buddha. “I was just focusing on my ball, every count. I had confidence even with the traffic. We all did.”
Final bullpen checkpoint? Passed. A much-beleaguered unit came through with the pressure at its highest, and Colorado’s postseason hopes will continue to ride on the unit.
“For us to take this all the way to the World Series, it’s going to take that kind of showing,” Carlos Gonzalez said. “The bullpen was nails.”
