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Cubs' Ross: 'Clearly the fans helped us win' with Wrigley at 100% capacity

Nuccio DiNuzzo / Getty Images Sport / Getty

Wrigley Field lived up to its "Friendly Confines" nickname on Friday.

"Clearly the fans helped us win that game," manager David Ross said, according to Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune.

As Anthony Rizzo worked a 14-pitch at-bat against St. Louis Cardinals reliever Daniel Ponce De Leon in the sixth, the fans in the stands got loud until the slugger ultimately hit a game-tying home run.

Rizzo felt the energy building from the batter's box.

"Towards the fifth, sixth, seventh pitch, everyone started getting into it more," Rizzo said, according to Jesse Rogers of ESPN. "It almost, in a way, helped me calm down and relax. I kept saying to myself, 'stay locked in, stay locked in.'"

The Cubs took the lead for good in the seventh on Joc Pederson's two-run double.

Friday was the first day of the MLB season where Wrigley Field was open to 100% capacity and it couldn't have come at a better time as the division-leading Cubs beat their bitter rivals with the support of the packed home crowd.

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