WOW! TWO NIGHTS IN A ROW! First it was Kris Bryant, and tonight it was Jason Heyward hitting the walk-off bomb in the 11th!
Whew. What a great ending to a game that threatened to be a repeat of Monday night’s loss instead of Tuesday night’s win …
Kyle Hendricks is just on fire. Not only was he commanding his pitches so well once again through eight innings of no earned runs, he also got his fastball up to 89 mph. 🔥🔥🔥
After those eight innings and 96 pitches, with the Cubs up one, Joe Maddon decided to pinch hit for Hendricks to lead off the bottom of the 8th, one of those “I can see it either way” decisions that you’re going to get lit up for if it goes wrong. And it did: Kyle Ryan came in and gave up a cheap grounder single, and Steve Cishek gave up the lead on a single, a wild pitch, and a groundout.
Fortunately, from there, Tyler Chatwood (with some defensive help) and Carl Edwards Jr. (who looked fantastic) got through the next two cleanly.
The early part of the game was somewhat overshadowed by the return of Addison Russell, who had a completely forgettable game outside of the slight majority of boos he received. I guess the return being uneventful outside of those boos is probably a good outcome.
In the end, that won’t carry the day, as the pitching, defense, and Heyward’s heroics will get most of the attention.