It’s rare that you can point to a single missed call and say that – THAT – would have made the outcome of the game entirely different, but hey, sometimes baseball will do that to you.
For an inning, it looked like the Cubs were going to pull off a crazy comeback after trailing 3-1 late in this one, with Daniel Descalso’s little league homer giving the Cubs a 4-3 lead heading into the 9th. But that was the high point, for reasons mentioned below.
It’s annoying – less than it was an hour ago, mind you – that Yu Darvish’s otherwise fantastic start was jacked up in the 6th inning by some crappy hits that found their way into safe territory. It won’t be remembered for as good as it was. Heck, other than the JT Realmuto homer that won the game, the Phillies really didn’t do crap for hard contact to actually win this one.
Jake Arrieta, too, had a very nice outing in his first ever start against the Cubs, getting a really nice ovation in his first plate appearance. Good for him. Would’ve been better if the Cubs had won.
Brad Brach, apparently feeling the hype of the evening, was out there pumping 97 mph in the 9th, and ostensibly closed things out … except a check swing for the final out by Andrew McCutchen was called not a swing (it was clearly a swing), he then walked, and a ridiculous bloop nothing hit tied the game. An inning later, a JT Realmuto solo homer won it for the Phillies. Unreal.