As soon as the familiar Guns N’ Roses tune began, the Cubs’ bullpen door opened, and the roar of a crowd nearly 40,000 strong greeted the savior these faithful have waited months to see.
“That gave me chills,” Cubs catcher Willson Contreras said.
By the time the strains of “Sweet Child O’ Mine” began to subside and the red-bearded Craig Kimbrel settled onto the mound at Wrigley Field on Thursday afternoon, bending into his trademark, arm-dangling stance to look for the sign, the roar of the crowd rose again.
“Definitely gives you goose bumps as a player,” first baseman Anthony Rizzo said.
And then a 98 mph fastball sizzled past Brian McCann for a called strike.
And just like that, in the ninth inning, on June 27, the Cubs’ 2019 season finally began.
In a collective exhale three months in the making, the Cubs unveiled a bona fide, lockdown closer Thursday afternoon. And Kimbrel struck out McCann, got a quick second out — electrifying the crowd all over again — before putting two men on, then failing to cover first on a grounder to Rizzo.
Rizzo beat Freddie Freeman to the bag with a dive for the final out as the Cubs beat the Braves 9-7. Kimbrel earned his first save as the Cubs reached the halfway mark of the season in first place by a game over the Brewers.
“It was awesome. It was great,” said Kimbrel, the seven-time All-Star who signed a three-year, $43 million deal three weeks ago after a long free agency. “As a competitor you always want to be in this spot. It was nice today it worked out like that.
“It might be a little bit until I’m full bore, with all I’ve got. But right now it felt pretty good.”
The Cubs haven’t had a closer since Brandon Morrow went on the disabled list at the All-Star break a year ago. They blew half their save chances during the first two months of the season.
But manager Joe Maddon seemed amped after watching Thursday’s comeback play out with a true closer in pocket and a sixth, seventh and eighth held in check by Steve Cishek, Brandon Kintzler and Pedro Strop.
“You can’t express how important that is,” Maddon said. “It matters. Those three outs are so big.”
How far they can go from here with Kimbrel might be more a function of how well they can hit to get enough leads late.
But everyone in a Cubs uniform felt the difference, when he looked in for that first sign and the arm went down, and the roar went up.
“I was pretty locked in. Sorry,” Kimbrel said. “I didn’t hear it.”
Well, almost everyone.
“It was great theater,” Maddon said.
