Detroit Tigers at Chicago Cubs

Tigers fans made themselves heard at Wrigley Field all Monday night. But as Kenley Jansen stared in at catcher Dillon Dingler with the bases loaded and a 3-0 count to Alex Bregman, Cubs fans drowned out everything else, even Jansen’s PitchCom earpiece. “It was an incredible atmosphere,” said Dingler, whose go-ahead single in the 10th inning capped a four-hit, two-homer game in a remarkable 8-6 win. “I’m sure you guys felt it. We had a ton of fans in the stands, and obviously the Cubs fans cheered very loud. It was back and forth.” Not that there was any mystery to what Jansen needed to do, or what he was going to throw. Throwing strikes with his cutter is too simple. He had to throw quality strikes against one of the banes of his career. Jansen, brought in to protect a tie game and send the Tigers to extra innings, had given up a Dansby Swanson leadoff double, a Michael Conforto flyout to put the potential winning run on third with one out, an intentional walk to Pete Crow-Armstrong, then an unintentional two-out walk to Michael Busch to load the bases. It was about as roller coaster of an inning as Jansen could have and still have a chance to escape. But it had to be Bregman. To say they have history is an understatement. Jansen called it a decade of battles. Bregman, then wrapping up his first full big league season, tormented Jansen in the 2017 World Series -- a home run in Game 4, a walk-off single in Game 5. Bregman got him for a go-ahead single in the regular season three years later, then a double in 2022. “Listen, he's seen me pretty good. But I love facing him,” Jansen said. “It's bringing the best out of me. We've had a lot of battles in the past, and to me, he's one of the best hitters in clutch moments like that.” That meant not giving in with a 3-0 count. But with nowhere to put Bregman, it also meant no room for ball four. And with the Tigers fighting to creep closer and closer back to the postseason, a defeat on a walk-off walk would’ve felt devastating. As manager A.J. Hinch put it, they’ve felt like they’ve been playing Game 7 on a nightly basis since May. “I know he has the heartbeat for it,” Hinch said of Jansen. “It’s just the execution. Could he collect himself?” The groans were audible on the telecast as Jansen put a 3-0 cutter on the outside corner. A fan behind home plate put his head in his hands, then did it again when Jansen put another cutter in the zone to run the count full. “I had a feeling that he was going to take until 3-2