Down 4-1 heading into the bottom of the eighth yesterday, the Cubs’ win expectancy against the Marlins was under 8%. With two innings to play, teams rarely come back from a three-run deficit.
Even after cutting that deficit to two heading into the 9th, the odds weren’t much better at 8.5%. And given that these Marlins were 53-0 when leading in the 9th, the odds felt much worse.
Still, the Cubs rallied on the strength of a Miguel Montero double, a Javy Baez single, a Matt Szczur walk, and a Dexter Fowler sac fly to right (on which everyone tagged up – especially impressive from Szczur at first base), which brought the Cubs within one run. The tying run was on third, and the winning run was on second.[adinserter block=”1″]
But Kris Bryant was called out on a pitch a good four inches off the plate, and the Cubs were down to their last out.
After an intentional walk to Anthony Rizzo, though, the stage was set for a crazy way to tie and win the game, without the benefit of a ball in play – a walk to Ben Zobrist, and a wild pitch with Willson Contreras up.
Wow.
Watch the whole inning here if you missed it:
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