Having taken an early lead, and lost an early lead, then taken a late lead, and lost a late lead, today was looking grim.
The Cubs had just lost Kris Bryant for an undetermined amount of time (hopefully not too long), are already down a number of players (including Kyle Schwarber, who is working at AAA), and were about to lose a four-game set and drop under .500. The Cubs’ chances of winning the game dropped under 4%.
By the 8th inning, my Twitter feed was full of questions about whether the Cubs should consider selling.
And then something miraculous happened in the 9th inning. The Cubs got a gift runner in the form of Jeimer Candelario taking one off the knee (he had X-rays after the game, and his status going forward is unclear). Then, after a force out to bring the Cubs down to their final out, Javy Baez got a hit. And Tommy La Stella got a hit.
And Jon Jay did this:
We never quit. #ThatsCub pic.twitter.com/j46E0drr70
— #VoteCubs today! (@Cubs) June 29, 2017
The emotional reaction of La Stella and the entire bench as he crossed the plate to give the Cubs the lead says it all. As did Jim Deshaies’ exclamations.
Wow. Unbelievable. Yet believable.
The talent – even when playing down so many – is there for the Cubs to win these games. They simply hadn’t been.
Given the week they’ve had, and given that they now head to Cincinnati, where they’ve always had a lot of success, will we look back at this incredible win and say it was finally the turning point?