A fun play from yesterday’s game that I didn’t want to go un-called-out today: Willson Contreras gunned down a runner.
Now, that would not, on its own, be a notable thing, since Contreras does that on the regular. When he does it with Jon Lester on the mound, it’s always just a touch more enjoyable, because of the holding-baserunner-problems thing, but still. Not necessarily worth a special call out.
So why am I calling it out? Check out the “shortstop/second baseman” on the play:
https://twitter.com/Cubs/status/1111401033639424002
That’s Kris Bryant laying down a slap tag to complete the play, thanks to the shift. That’s fun!
It was also interesting to see the way the Cubs opted to do their extreme shifting yesterday, moving the shortstop (Javy Baez) into the deep hole between second base and first base, and moving their third baseman (Kris Bryant) over into the shortstop spot, alone on the left side of the field. You often see the shortstop stay over there, while the third baseman becomes the short right fielder.