On This Day in Cubs History: Chicago Can't Stop Winning

The Chicago Cubs won a litany of big games on October 8 throughout their storied history.

© Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports

October 8 is a great day for big games in Chicago Cubs history. From 1908-2016 Wrigley Field was often flying the "W".

On this day in 1908 the Cubs clinched their third National League pennant in three seasons. After the results of the previous day's game were made null due to 'Merkle's Boner', Chicago sent their ace, Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown to the hill opposed by Christy Matthewson.

In a pitching matchup for the ages, the Cubs took home the pennant and a 4-2 victory en route to their second consecutive World Series win.

37 years later in 1945, the Cubs still hadn't taken home another World Series title, but they were close.

Leading 7-3 after seven innings the Cubs needed only six more outs to force a winner-take-all game seven, but it was not to be so simple. Their opponents, the Detroit Tigers rallied for four runs in the eighth and sent the game to extras.

The contest stayed scoreless until the bottom of the 12th when Frank Seory singled before Stan Hack came to the plate. Hack ripped a liner into left field that took a bad hop over Hank Greenberg's shoulder and rolled to the wall, Seory came around to score and the Cubs were just inches away from breaking the Curse before it started.

Finally, 71 years later, that curse was broken, but not before a long arduous road through playoffs.

Oct. 8, 2016 was game two of the NLDS which pitted Kyle Hendricks against Jeff Samardzija. After just two innings the Cubs took a commanding lead which was never truly threatened.

After a Ben Zobrist single got Chicago on the board in the first, pitcher Kyle Hendricks got in on the fun, driving in two runs of his own with the bases loaded. Then Kris Bryant added to the Cubs tally with yet another RBI single to make it 4-0.

When Aroldis Chapman came in for the save, the Cubs were still up 5-2, and just 16 pitches later, there were up 2-0 in the series too.

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