Chicago Cubs: Top 5 wins of the 2018 regular season

Chicago Cubs 14 – Atlanta Braves 10

On a cold, rainy, windy, and altogether nasty Saturday in April, the Cubs and Atlanta Braves took the field in an attempt to avoid the Cubs’ third rainout in 11 days.

At the time of the first pitch, it was a frigid 38 degrees with wind speeds over 20 miles per hour. If the weather during the first month of the season had been less brutal, there is no way this game would have been played.

To say this game started poorly for the Cubs would be an understatement. Jose Quintana lasted just 2.1 innings and allowed 11 baserunners and seven earned runs.

Eddie Butler came on in relief but didn’t fare much better. He went 3.2 innings and allowed seven men to reach base and three of them to cross the plate.

The ugly weather conditions were only part of what made the day miserable – through four innings, the Cubs trailed the Braves 10-2.

The Cubs threatened in the bottom of the sixth, loading the bases with nobody out. Yet they could only muster one run on a four-pitch walk to Schwarber.

The Cubs cut into the Braves lead again in the seventh inning on an RBI triple by Zobrist and a fielder’s choice groundout by Baez.

Things still looked bleak as the Cubs trailed 10-5 entering the bottom of the eighth. Two of the first four batters reached base, but with two outs, hopes of a comeback still seemed dismal. Then things got weird.

The next eight Cubs hitters would reach base, but only two of them would get hits. Here’s how that happened: Bryant was hit by a pitch, Contreras singled, Zobrist walked, Baez doubled, Addison Russell was intentionally walked, Heyward walked, Schwarber walked, and Tommy La Stella walked.

By the end of the inning, the Cubs would send 13 batters to the plate, scored nine times, and took a 14-10 lead. And that’s how the game would end, as Morrow shut down the Braves in the top of the ninth.

It was ugly early, but the Cubs’ determination was on full display as the team climbed out of an eight-run hole by scoring 12 straight unanswered runs in what would be the wildest game of the Cubs’ regular season.