DAVID BOTE!!!
What else is there to say about this kid? After going through a bit of a dip in his production, he came through with yet another walk-off home run (this one, with the bases empty) to give the Cubs their third consecutive win this afternoon. There’s going to be a statue of him on Clark and Addison sometime in the near future. I’m sure of it.
Of course, at one point, the story of the day figured to be Daniel Murphy’s first homer as a Cub, which he uncorked as a go-ahead shot in the bottom of the eighth (or even that egregiously bad strike call on Ben Zobrist in the ninth), but Pedro Strop wasn’t able to lock things down and the game continued frustratingly into extras (but now I’m kinda glad it did for the Bote blast!).
But before we get lost in the walk-off mania, I have to call attention to Alec Mills’ excellent start. Thanks to Cole Hamels complete game last night, Mills didn’t need to be on top of his game today, but he was. In addition to recording his first Major League hit, he also tossed 5.2 innings, limiting the Reds to just 1 run on 3 hits and a walk. More impressively, he struck out 8 Reds batters and kept the ball on the ground all afternoon (53.8 GB%).
In all likelihood, Mike Montgomery will be back in the rotation before this spot comes around again (he threw off the bullpen mound today), so that was probably it for Mills (for now), but he did a really nice job.
But anyway …. DAVID BOTE. You, sir, are a legend. (Also, more Bote love coming soon).