The Cubs played a sloppy game of baseball yesterday. It’s true. They did.
Don’t get me wrong, they managed to steal a win from the clutches of 6.0 inning no-hit bid from Max Scherzer and the Washington Nationals thanks to their talent and whatnot … but, yeah, they played sloppy.
In just nine short innings, they committed four errors, including a messed-up pick off throw that let a runner sprint to third from Jose Quintana, two errors on the same play that led to a run scoring by Kyle Schwarber, and then another, more run-of-the-mill boot by second baseman Ben Zobrist.
But the Cubs love to burn brightly.
They may have made more than their fair share of errors last night, but they balanced it out with a couple of absolutely highlight reel gems. The first of which came from the Cubs starting shortstop, Addison Russell.
With one out in the top of the seventh inning and the Cubs still down a run, Michael Taylor hit a hard grounder up the middle that seemed destined for the outfield (indeed Statcast clocked it at 101 MPH off the bat). But somehow, it found Addison Russell’s glove and he made this miraculous play:
#AddiSmooth pic.twitter.com/hXvKBgaIsS
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) October 10, 2017
And how about the stretch from Rizzo?!
With a speedy Taylor streaking down the line, Russell had to pop and throw as quickly as possible – and, so, the throw wasn’t exactly perfect. But the Gold Glove first baseman made a big stretch and met the ball just in time. Absolutely gorgeous all the way around.
Then, of course, the Cubs tied the game in the bottom of the seventh inning, but ended things on a bit of a down note, when Jason Heyward was inexplicably doubled off first base killing the momentum.
And yet, the defense got things going again in the top half of the eighth, when Ben Zobrist, who was one of the error-makers earlier in the game, came up with this beauty of a play:
Zobi-Wan. pic.twitter.com/QczN1hMsnT
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) October 10, 2017
Zobrist doesn’t typically have a ton of range, doesn’t make a lot of diving stops, and isn’t light on his feet. Tre Turner is one of the fastest players in all of baseball and that ball wasn’t hit particularly hard. Nine times out of ten, if I had to bet, I’d say that goes the Nationals way. But last night, well, the Cubs caught a break and Zobrist made a KILLER play.
Instead of no outs with a man on first and Bryce Harper up to bat (just typing that is making me have flash backs to Saturday night), Edwards was able to go after Harper without anyone on base and struck him out immediately. That was probably one of the biggest plays of the game and it came from a pretty unexpected source.
And how about the run Jon Jay saved earlier on by tracking down this gapper:
.@jonjayU saves a run. #FlyTheW pic.twitter.com/UbGtoR2QZY
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) October 10, 2017
What a game.
The Cubs will have to tighten things up if they want to make it a less stressful game today, but if they could keep the highlight-style plays coming, I’d be cool with that, too.