NEWSLETTER
The Chicago Cubs staged a huge, extremely satisfying comeback yesterday against the Atlanta Braves, thanks in large part to four homers – one each from Anthony Rizzo, Addison Russell, Miguel Montero, and Jorge Soler – the latter two of which came off of old friend Edwin Jackson.
It was particularly fun, because all four homers were of the just-barely variety. Like, extremely just-barely. The gods smiled on the Cubs yesterday. More on that at the end.
Anthony Rizzo’s shot came in the third inning, and it was the most certain of all the blasts … because it actually made it into the seats:
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That was Rizzo’s 25th homer of the year, putting 30 very much within reach. That would give Rizzo back-to-back 30-homer seasons (he hit 32 last year), which would be swell.
Addison Russell’s homer was the closest of them all – and a critical one that tied the game in the 6th. Even after multiple replays and reviews, it’s still debatable whether this ball actually left the yard:
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As best I can tell, the fan clearly reached over the basket and into the field of play, but the ball hits high enough up on his arms that it *probably* would have gone into the basket. Apparently the umps thought the same thing, and upheld the homer after a review.
And then the Cubs went back-to-back against Edwin Jackson in the 8th. Miguel Montero:
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Montero has a lot of power going that way, even if he got help from the basket. Reminded me of his walk-off homer a couple weeks ago, albeit less of a monster shot.
The video for Jorge Soler’s homer isn’t yet embeddable, but you can watch it here. The thing I find very interesting about the homer is that Soler very much elevated that pitch, which was not necessarily up in the zone. As we’ve discussed, that’s not something he does regularly, which is why he has so few homers despite his obvious natural power.
The Cubs got a lot of help from the baskets at Wrigley, and from where they hit the balls. Get this:
Talk about home field advantage, and getting some love from the gods of ball location.
