NEWSLETTER
If last night’s 13-inning win was improbable, I will need an entirely new – invented on the spot – word to describe tonight’s game.
Nocrapawaymcshock.
Still doesn’t quite do it.
Down 5-0 after the second inning, it looked like the Cubs were going to cap off today’s doubleheader the way they started it: with an ugly, uncompetitive loss. But, like last night, the Cubs kicked off the shackles of easy storytelling, and put something together immediately in the top of the third.
And when the Reds intentionally walked David Ross with two outs to load the bases for pitcher Dallas Beeler, Joe Maddon said eff it, we’re getting back in this game right now. He used Kris Bryant as a pinch hitter there and then. A single later, and the game was tied.
From there, the Cubs and Reds each failed to come through against a tired bullpen that was pressed into so much more service (seriously: so much credit to the Cubs’ pen tonight). The Reds came close in the 8th, loading the bases with one out, when Todd Frazier ripped the ball off of Hector Rondon … and it ricocheted to Anthony Rizzo, who quickly threw home for the force out.
In the 9th, the Cubs looked like they would once again fail to come through when Anthony Rizzo managed a single off of Aroldis Chapman with Dexter Fowler at second base. Fowler was thrown out at home. Jorge Soler was intentionally walked after Rizzo took second on the throw home, leaving Taylor Teagarden to face Chapman.
