Suzuki walks it off in extras to kick off pivotal stretch for Cubs

CHICAGO -- Seiya Suzuki pulled off his helmet with both hands and tossed it high into the air after rounding first base on Friday afternoon. He smiled wide as he turned and saw the mob of Cubs teammates pouring out of the dugout and onto the infield to celebrate the first walk-off hit of his career.

“It makes me happy,” Suzuki said via interpreter Edwin Stanberry. “I’m usually the one who goes out there and jumps on my teammates, so it felt good to be on the other side.”

Suzuki’s 10th-inning single off Blue Jays reliever Chad Green scored Ian Happ from second and set off the on-field party as the Cubs earned a 6-5 win and fans roared at Wrigley Field. When Jameson Taillon said it was time for the North Siders to “punch back” after a discouraging sweep in Cleveland earlier this week, this was certainly close to what he had in mind.

The victory was a good way for the Cubs to begin their 18-game stretch against teams with sub-.500 records. If Chicago is going to pull off an improbable rise up the National League Wild Card standings, the team knows it has to begin rattling off wins in a hurry.

This is potentially a make-or-break moment for a Cubs squad trying to defy the dwindling postseason odds and pull itself back into the October conversation.

“I think it’s reasonable to see it that way,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said before the win over Toronto. “But, it happens on a day-to-day basis.”

Per Fangraphs, the Cubs had improved their postseason odds to 9.4% going into the three-game set against the Guardians earlier in the week. Those were still slim chances, but they were up from 4.9% on July 3 -- after which the North Siders won 20 out of 32 games. There was at least a breath of hope for Chicago.

The brooming in Cleveland against a team primed for October was a reality check that knocked the playoff odds down to 3.2% for the Cubs. That said, Chicago could cling to optimism -- no matter how faint -- in seeing the upcoming schedule featuring 18 games against the Blue Jays, Tigers, Marlins, Pirates and Nationals (all under .500). The Cubs are not scheduled to face a team with a winning ledger until hosting the Yankees on Sept. 6-8.

“It’s no different than any other stretch,” Happ said. “We know where we’re at in the standings, and we have to play good baseball. Like I’ve said the last couple weeks: you've got to take it one game at a time, one series at a time, just keep stacking series.

“We were doing a really good job of that. We ran into a really good [team] there from Cleveland. We’ll get right back on the train here and try to win a series at home.”

Home runs from Cody Bellinger, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Miguel Amaya and Happ helped the Cubs build a 5-2 lead on Friday afternoon. Veteran reliever Héctor Neris, who had a 1.17 ERA in his previous 16 outings going back to June 17, then yielded three runs in the ninth inning to pull the game into a 5-5 deadlock.

Neris recovered with a strikeout of Daulton Varsho to end the inning and Tyson Miller followed with a clean ninth to keep Toronto at bay. That set things up for the Cubs, who saw rookie Michael Busch draw a walk off Green before Suzuki pulled a slider through the infield and into left for the game-winning moment.

“No one likes to give up runs. Héctor did today. He gave up the lead,” Counsell said. “But he kept it there and we got the job done. And that’s a win. And that’s the big thing. It’d be great to pick how [you get] every win and make them beautiful. But a win’s a win.”

Cubs veteran Kyle Hendricks offered a similar message.

“We know exactly where we’re at and it’s been that way for a while. It’s the opportunity that’s in front of us,” said Hendricks, who was charged with two runs (one earned) over five innings. “Today, it doesn’t matter how it looks, how we get it done. A win’s a win.”

The Cubs need more of them in a hurry.

“The challenge is to play consistently good,” Counsell said. “But consistently, I don’t think we’ve earned one of those [long winning] streaks. Our job is to be consistent enough where we earn it.”