Cubs Raise Championship Banner At Wrigley

Then soon after the storms cleared, a familiar face returned to the Wrigley Field jumbotron: David Ross. Ryne Sandberg, Fergie Jenkins, and Billy Williams will be on hand for the raising of the banner. Once the festivities are finished, the Cubs will send Jon Lester to the mound against the Los Angeles Dodgers, who lost to Chicago in the NL Championship Series a year ago. “I’ll remember this day for as long as I play baseball. I was fighting back tears a lot”. Every time a kid shows up at the ballpark, he’ll see that banner. A ideal ending to a flawless night on the North Side. The Cubs first baseman had taken the trophy home and, after snapping some pictures of it tucked in his bed and resting on a pillow, he fell asleep with the Holy Grail of sports keeping watch over him. I asked Eric Stephen, manager of our SB Nation Dodgers site True Blue LA, to tell us a bit about his team as 2017 begins. The young pitcher, an instrumental part of back-to-back World Series trips, was killed in an offseason auto crash in the Dominican Republic. Lester, whose $155 million free-agent signing before the 2015 season was the symbolic start of the Cubs’ competitive run, threw the first pitch to Dodgers second baseman Logan Forsythe almost two hours past the scheduled game time.

These two big-market teams appear to be on another collision course.

Kyle Schwarber and Ben Zobrist hit home runs and Jake Arrieta threw seven strong innings, as the Chicago Cubs took the series from the Milwaukee Brewers with a 7-3 victory. The main event was the banners commemorating the three championships and last year’s pennant going up in the outfield – two on each side of the manual scoreboard in center. Obviously, it was a great accomplishment.

Monday: Jon Lester (0-0, 1.80 ERA, 1.800 WHIP, 1.44 FIP) vs.

Lester did not have his best stuff on Monday night.

Lester was an All-Star last season, as well as the runner-up for the National League’s Cy Young Award.

With Rich Hill on the disabled list, there are no former Cubs on the Dodgers’ active roster.

“This is the lowest-maintenance group I’ve ever been around”, Epstein said. “And this year, they’re handling the fact that we won and avoiding that complacency better than I could have imagined”.

“We don’t have to do anything”.

People have tried. Controversy dogged the current renovations when they were first proposed; the Park at Wrigley is just one of three major projects underway in the area. But they got to him for a run on Corey Seager’s RBI double in the sixth inning.

“It’s been a total non-issue”.

Utley had appeared to ground into the inning-ending double play at first base, but shortstop Addison Russell’s throw to first was wild and skipped into the Cubs’ dugout, allowing Forsythe to score the tying run.

By the last pitch, there were rows and rows of empty green seats.

Jansen got through one half of Bryzzo Souvenir Co. – striking out Bryant swinging – but not the other, as Rizzo lined a ball over third base for the winning hit. Wednesday will be another big day for the Cubs.