The Giants and Cubs came into the 1989 National League Championship Series very evenly matched. The Giants, managed by Roger Craig, won the N.L. West by three games with a 92-70 record. The Cubs, with Don Zimmer as their manager, captured the N.L. East by six games at 93-69 to earn home field advantage in the seven-game series.
Here’s a game-by-game look at how things went:
Game 1: Giants 11, Cubs 3
The opener at Wrigley Field seemed to favor the Cubs with 19-game winner and future Hall of Famer Greg Maddux on the mound for Chicago, but Giants starter Scott Garrelts had actually posted the best ERA in baseball that year (2.25 to go with a 14-5 record). Pitching mattered little, though, as the Giants broke out the bats early with three-first inning runs.
Will Clark drove in the first with a double, and after N.L. MVP Kevin Mitchell singled, Matt Williams drove them both home with a double. Mark Grace’s two-run homer in the second got the Cubs back within a run. Clark hit a solo homer to deep center in the third to make it 4-2, and Ryne Sandberg countered in the bottom half.
But then “The Thrill” delivered one of his most thrilling career moments, whacking a grand slam off Maddux in the top of the fourth for an 8-3 Giants lead. The Cubs wouldn’t score again, and the Giants kept adding on.
Game 2: Cubs 9, Giants 5
This one looked over early at Wrigley. Chicago pounded former Cubs pitcher Rick Reuschel for six runs in the first, sending 12 men to the plate and knocking Reuschel out after just two-thirds of an inning. The Giants stabilized behind reliever Kelly Downs and got a two-run Mitchell homer in the fourth to cut it to 6-2.
The Giants had rallies in both the fifth and sixth innings, but relievers Paul Assenmacher and Les Lancaster kept them from scoring in the respective frames. Chicago then put the game away in the bottom of the sixth when Mark Grace lined a three-run double off reliever Craig Lefferts to make it 9-3. Mitchell hit his second homer of the game, a three-run shot, in the eighth, but the Giants would get no closer.
Game 3: Giants 5, Cubs 4
The Giants surrendered just two hits in the entire series to Cubs slugger Andre Dawson, but one came in the first inning of this game, a two-run single that gave Chicago the early jump off starter Mike LaCoss. But San Francisco batted around in the bottom of the first at Candlestick Park and answered with three runs against Rick Sutcliffe on a bases-loaded groundout, a bases-loaded walk and an infield single by light-hitting Jose Uribe.
Shawon Dunston, now a member of the Giants’ coaching staff, scored on a wild pitch in the fifth and Sandberg’s sacrifice fly in the seventh gave Chicago a 4-3 lead. But Brett Butler stroked a one-out single in the bottom of the seventh and second baseman Robby Thompson followed with a line shot homer to left off Lancaster to put the Giants back in front.
The bullpen took over from there, as veterans Don Robinson, Lefferts and Steve Bedrosian shut out the Cubs the rest of the way. Mitchell delivered a huge defensive play in the seventh, catchingDawson’s deep fly to left field and then doubling Grace off second base with a strong throw.
Game 4: Giants 6, Cubs 4
A back-and-forth thriller at Candlestick Park. With the Game 1 starters back on the mound, both teams scored in the first and the Cubs took a 2-1 lead in the second on a Luis Salazar solo homer off Garrelts in the second. The Giants answered with two runs in the third when a double put runners at second and third with two out, and after Mitchell was intentionally walked, Williams singled to center off Maddux to make it 3-2.
San Francisco added a fourth run in the fourth when Maddux had Uribe picked off at second base but threw wildly to third, and Uribe subsequent scored on a Maddux wild pitch with Garrelts at the plate. The Cubs tied the score in the fifth on an RBI triple by Grace and a run-scoring double by Dawson, but the Giants answered in the bottom half with a Williams two-run homer off reliever Steve Wilson.
Kelly Downs then became the pitching hero, throwing four scoreless frames in relief before Bedrosian came on with a man on first and two out, proceeded to load the bases, but then struck out Dawson to end a riveting game.
Game 5: Giants 3, Cubs 2
Reuschel got the call again after his Game 2 disaster but was much better this time at Candlestick Park. He allowed just one unearned run over eight innings, but for awhile, it looked like that run might stand up in a Cubs win. In the top of the third, Mitchell misplayed Jerome Walton’s one-out fly to left and Walton wound up on second, where Sandberg drove him home with a double into the right-center gap.
The 1-0 lead stood until the bottom of the eighth, with Cubs starter Mike Bielicki having allowed just two hits. But Clark tripled to right and Mitchell singled to tie it 1-1. In the bottom of the eighth, Bielicki got the first two outs but then suffered an inexplicable bout of wildness, walking the bases loaded. Zimmer went to hard-throwing lefty Mitch Williams to face Clark.
Williams got ahead 1-2, but Clark fouled off a pair of tough pitches and finally lined a two-run single to center, prompting the famous Hank Greenwald radio call, “Superman has done it again!” It wasn’t quite over, though. After getting the first two outs in the ninth, Bedrosian gave up three straight singles as the Cubs got within 3-2 and sent Sandberg to the plate with the tying and winning runs on base. But Sandberg hit a weak grounder to second, Thompson threw to Clark for the out and the Giants were in their first World Series in 27 years.
The aftermath
Clark was an easy choice as series MVP after hitting .650 (13 for 20) in the series with three doubles, a triple and two home runs, not to mention the biggest blows in the first and last games. In many respects, it was the apex of his career as a Giants player.
Mitchell and Williams also had outstanding series, both hitting .300 or better with two homers each, and the Giants got the best of a Chicago team with three future Hall of Famers – Maddux, Dawson and Sandberg.
Little did they know that climactic Game 5 would be the last game they would win that year. They subsequently would get steamrolled in four games by the A’s juggernaut from across the bay, a World Series further tarnished by the devastating Loma Prieta earthquake just prior to Game 3 at Candlestick.
