How The Cubs Won The NL Wild-Card Game

The benches have emptied in the game, adding a frisson of aggression to what was until now a pretty calm affair. Ironically, in hockey — the sport that actually allows fighting — the rate of fights dramatically declines in the playoffs!

Ooof — as Chad wrote, that double play dropped Pittsburgh’s win probability by 13 percentage points. But don’t feel too bad, Starling Marte: it only tied for the sixth-costliest double play hit into by a Pirate batter in postseason history.

Arrieta hit a batter once in six different games during the regular season. The Cubs won all six, giving up a total of just six runs. Going back to the end of last year, the Cubs are 8-0 with eight runs yielded, total, the last eight times Arrieta hit a batter. Baseball is weird — Arrieta is really good when he’s not hitting batters, too. Also noteworthy: counting tonight, the last 16 times Arrieta has hit a batter have come when the Cubs are ahead or tied. His HBPs don’t appear to be a product of stress.