EL. FREAKING. MAGO.
Were it another player, you might focus on the errant throw and the sloppy play in the outfield (or the fact that it was Friday the 13th!). But the thing is, Javy Baez KEEPS DOING STUFF LIKE THIS.
So, the Cubs took the lead in the 10th inning on Baez’s latest baserunning adventure, but they got there only because, down to their last strike, Anthony Rizzo tied it up for the Cubs with a beautiful piece of hitting against Brad Hand – staying on a slider on the outside black, and poking it into the left center gap to score Jason Heyward from first base.
Earlier in the game, Baez got screwed out of a homer that replay somehow couldn’t tell left the park, but fortunately he later scored on a two-run Ian Happ single anyway. Kris Bryant doubled in the Cubs’ other run in the game.
On the pitching side of things, the bullpen was brilliant. Tyler Chatwood was, well … minimally passable? Five innings and three runs kinda feels like what you can realistically hope for on a semi-regular basis at this point.
West Coast games are hard, even against bad teams. And when you lose the lead in the 8th inning on a bloop, they get even harder. But the Cubs came back, and then Javy did some magic. What a win.