Ugly Baseball Wins Are A Beautiful Fucking Thing

This isn't as much about the Cubs game tonight or really any single game in particular as much as it is about a general vibe around the baseball season. 162 games is a lot of fucking games. There's plenty of different ways to win or lose one of them and I can confidently say that the most satisfying one is where your team should lose, horrifically, and yet they somehow win. I don't know how many times it happens throughout an entire season but we got a big taste of that feeling tonight. 

Yes it's nice Arrieta managed the damage early. It's even better Joc Pedersen came back with another multi-homer game to his career. The bullpen is obviously so good I don't even think I should be talking about it so I don't get blamed for regression. But fact is they haven't allowed an ER in almost 30 straight innings. 

Objectively, the Pirates suck. That makes it even worse when you're getting your dick kicked in following an off day following a monster division series win this weekend. It's 3-0 after two innings and you want to spike your remote. You're emotionally back and forth on how much you care. This week has some cupcake matchups on the board. Now's the time to make a run and you're chasing 3 before they even start selling split the pot tickets. Fucking crazy. 

And then you chip away. Your pitching staff steps up. Lineup gets some big hits. Next thing you know Kimbrel has a save situation in the 9th. That's not how tonight should go and these are the wins that mean the most. Here's an unofficial power ranking: 

1. Winning a game you should clearly lose 

2. Blowouts 

3. Late inning comebacks

4. Pitcher's duel

5. Slugfest 

6. Extra innings

The Cubs keep racking up close games. That's 10 one-run wins while all 7 losses this May have come by... one run. It's a team that plays close games and that shit matters towards the end. The bullpen will be tested. The lineup will be balanced and deep. David Ross will have the boys firing on all cylinders and we'll have grown from nights like tonight. 

It would've been unnecessarily easy to hang a loss and instead the Cubs hang around and grind a win. That's what championship caliber clubs do.