If the Cubs know how to do one thing, it’s have a homer party.
And while part of me is sad that this will be the final homer party post of the 2016 season, the rest of me is saying you’re an idiot, it came in Game 7 of the World Series.
Also, before we get into each individual blast, I want to point out a couple of things. First, after not hitting a single home run in the first three games of the series, the Cubs had Dexter Fowler hit one in Game 4, Kris Bryant hit one in Game 5, there was a Bryant – Russell – Rizzo homer party in Game 6 and then another one between Dexter Fowler, David Ross, and Javy Baez in the clincher.
So, after hitting exactly 0 homers in the first three games, the Cubs hit eight in the final four games, with blasts from six different players. The Cubs bats turned up at precisely the right time, and, well yeah, I guess I’m trying to tell you that I heart them.
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The first homer from Game 7 came on the fourth pitch of the night. It was, of course, a Dexter Fowler blast to deep right center field and it was the only run the Cubs needed all night (lololol):
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Although he wasn’t actually close to catching it, Rajai Davis sure made me sweat for every single second that ball was in the air – which, according to Statcast, was 6.7 seconds. The final projected distance was 406 feet, and Fowler put a 103.9 MPH charge into it, as well. That homer was the first of three hits for Fowler on the night, who finished strong after going 0-8 in his previous two games.
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After Addison Russell and Willson Contreras plated a couple of runs in the 4th, Javy Baez led off the top of the fifth inning with a homer right to a pretty similar spot:
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After having made not one, but two errors in the innings prior, Baez was certainly looking for some redemption with his bat, and boy did he find it in the right field stands. Baez’s ball was hit almost exactly as hard (103.8 MPH) and far (402 feet) as Dexter Fowler’s, but because of a much lower launch angle, it stayed in the air for much less time (5.3 seconds). After a huge NLDS and NLCS, Baez had been having a rough go of it in the World Series. Now, I think we can once again dream freely on his upside for 2017.
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You know how they save the best for last? Never has that been more true. In the second to last at-bat of the last game of his career, a 39-year-old David Ross stepped up to the plate against one of the best pitchers in baseball, Andrew Miller. What he did next should look pretty familiar:
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Yet another 103.9 MPH, 402 foot, 6.4 second hang time home run to right-center field just over Rajai Davis’ head. Ross, not entirely unlike Baez, had just allowed a wild pitch from Jon Lester to turn into two runs, so he was surely itching to make up for it. He did. In terms of ways to go out, you could do a lot worse than David Ross:
In his final season, David Ross
1. Reached 100 HRs
2. Caught a No-hitter
3. Hit a home run in the World Series
4. Won the WS with the Cubs— Michael Cerami (@Michael_Cerami) November 3, 2016
.@D_Ross3 goes out on top: https://t.co/ogtYJm15lI #YearLongRetirementParty pic.twitter.com/rpRIj6WAKW
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) November 3, 2016
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It might be a while before our next homer party, and two of three guys above may never be Cubs again, but for now, they are. They homered in Game 7 of the World Series. They helped the Cubs achieve something for which they’ve been searching over a century. Live it up, Cubs fans, these guys did it for you.
Look what the boys got me for my retirement pic.twitter.com/wtnE2WrWYV
— David Ross (@D_Ross3) November 3, 2016
#CubsInSeven