Column: Sleepless nights for David Ross in the wild-card chase unlikely to end after Chicago Cubs’ shocking loss

David Ross participated in seven postseasons as a player with four teams and one season on “Dancing With the Stars.”

But the pressure Ross faced before is nothing like what he’s going through now managing the Chicago Cubs in this crazy National League wild-card chase.

The challenge of getting this Cubs team into the postseason has been one of the biggest of his life and is why Ross sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night.

“Way different as a manager than as a player,” Ross said Tuesday before the Cubs’ 7-6 loss to Atlanta Braves at Truist Park. “I don’t know how to describe it. It’s fun, and you try and prepare and keep it all the same, but inside you’re riding it.

“But within that it’s fun. (Julian) Merryweather the other day walks the first two guys (in the ninth inning) and gets out of that. You’re carrying it. I don’t get that (feeling) golfing on the weekend. That’s what you sign up for — the nerves, the adrenaline, a little bit of anxiety. Shoot, that’s what fuels you in the morning and wakes you up in the middle of the night when things aren’t going well.”

Tuesday’s shocking loss was one of those nights. The Cubs blew a 6-0 sixth-inning lead and watched the Braves score the tying and go-ahead runs with two outs in the eighth on Sean Murphy’s fly ball that Seiya Suzuki misplayed.

It was shades of the 1998 wild-card race, when Cubs outfielder Brant Brown dropped a fly ball in the ninth to lose a game to the Milwaukee Brewers on Sept. 23 at County Stadium. That play led to the infamous “Oh, no” call by Cubs broadcaster Ron Santo.

Pat Hughes, who called both games, said the play was “eerie” in its familiarity.

“There would have been three to play (in ‘98),” he said. “That was the last game of the series. We got on the plane and nobody was talking.”

The Cubs clubhouse Tuesday was just as silent. Suzuki’s eyes were wet as he spoke, calling it a “mistake” and refusing to make an excuse.

“Happens to every single one of us,” said pitcher Drew Smyly, whose two walks scored on the error. “We’ve all made errors. All we can do is turn the page and come back tomorrow. We have five more games. Seiya has been one of the best hitters in the league, been carrying us all month. We all support him and have his back.

”If it would’ve happened in the first inning, it probably wouldn’t even be a a story. But the way it ended, just a tough play.”

Ross isn’t the only one waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. Cubs fans have gone through the ringer all year, wondering which team will show up on any given day.

On Tuesday they saw both.

With five games remaining and the wild-card race heating up, they’re looking for Ross to make all the right moves and for the team’s biggest stars, including Cody Bellinger, Dansby Swanson and Justin Steele, to come through when they’re needed the most.

Swanson’s homecoming to Atlanta this week has been a chance for the Cubs shortstop to have a home-cooked meal from his mother, including his favorite side dishes, creamed corn and fried okra. He spent much of the pregame Tuesday talking with old friends from the Braves, the Atlanta media and stadium employees he’s known over the years.

In Atlanta, Swanson was one star in a clubhouse full of them. On the Cubs, he’s the centerpiece of the organization, brought in last winter with the most lucrative deal in team history. Like Ross, the pressure on Swanson in the final week is enormous. After hitting .184 in August with a .662 OPS, he was closer to his norm in September with a .269 average and .778 OPS.

“It just kind of helps keep the juices flowing,” Swanson said before the game of his family visit. “Especially at this point of the year. Everyone is banged up and tired. To be able to have some downtime and get recharged has been awesome.”

Swanson watched a tribute video of his Atlanta career before the game and saluted the fans who supported him over the years. Then he got another standing ovation in his first at-bat.

This could have been a lifelong relationship between a hometown player and the team he grew up rooting for. But the Braves had so many stars, they didn’t make much of an effort to keep Swanson. So he and his wife, Mallory Pugh Swanson, the Chicago Red Stars forward, decided Chicago would be their new home for at least the next seven years.

“I got the pretty clear sense that they were going to move on,” Swanson said of the Braves at his introductory news conference in Chicago. “I don’t want to say things I don’t need to say. But it kind of solidified (my decision). It got to a point where, we’re on our honeymoon, that we felt like this is where we’re supposed to be regardless.”

The easy move when you have success is staying in your comfort zone. Sometimes in life you have to take a risk and see what’s on the other side. Swanson decided to try to help a rebuilding team and became an integral part of one of the more remarkable in-season turnarounds in Cubs’ history.

But for the Cubs to complete this story, they’ll need Swanson to be in the middle of the action, playing at the level that made him an All-Star.

Ross also knows what it’s like to put his reputation on the line. He could have stayed in the ESPN broadcast booth and avoided all the stress he has endured as Cubs manager. His legacy in Chicago was already secure as lovable “Grandpa Rossy,” the guy who hit a home run in Game 7 of the 2016 World Series and was one of the most popular backup catchers ever.

His Q-rating probably would’ve stayed at the same high plateau forever, but as soon as he agreed to step into the manager’s role after the 2019 season, Ross knew he would be second-guessed over his lineup decisions and bullpen maneuvering, that every quote would be parsed for a deeper meaning and that eventually some would call for his firing.

He has experienced all of that this season, even as the Cubs have climbed out of their early rut to become contenders again. Now he’s trying to get the Cubs past the finish line, knowing the finger will be pointed squarely at him by some if they don’t get the job done.

It’s an occupational hazard and something he’s learned to live with.

“There are different areas of my job, things that come up,” he said. “There are people that piss me off some days and it puts me in a bad mood, and people that make me happy some days.”

How the story ends for the Cubs remains to be seen. But for some angst-ridden Cubs fans, they have seen this script before.

The Cubs wound up saving Brown in ‘98 by making the playoffs as a wild-card team after winning Game 163. The ‘23 Cubs believe they can save Seiya and do likewise.

“It has to be a total team effort,” Smyly said. “The Braves are a really, really good team. Milwaukee is a good team. It’s not going to be easy.

“We’ve shown all year we can beat these guys. It’s just a matter of putting it together for five more and punching our ticket in.”