NEWSLETTER
At a surface level, having come back from a 6-1 deficit against a first place team would place yesterday’s win at the top of the heap this year. Even in a context-neutral match-up, coming back from 6-1 after the top of the 4th is just a 7.1% proposition. Heckuva comeback.
But really, it’s a lot more than that, right?
First off, it was a pseudo fill-in start by Tyler Chatwood, which always makes things a bit tougher. (The Cubs were fortunate to get a fill-in start on the other side of the bump, too.) It came on the heels of a very disappointing stretch of baseball, and was about to become the Cubs losing a four-game series at home, dropping back into a first place tie in the division.
AND, the thud-ish loss would have squandered a lot of the positive energy associated with Craig Kimbrel’s official arrival on the roster.
So, then, to have turned all that around, to have pull out a comeback win of that magnitude and given Kimbrel a chance to light a fire? That’s the best win of the year so far.
Apologies to Kyle Hendricks’ Maddux, the game Javy Baez walked it off on his bum wheel, the game David Bote won just before dashing out to meet his new baby, and the back-to-back Kris Bryant and Jason Heyward walk-offs against the Marlins. All very good games (and it was fun to go back and check those out). None with quite the punch of yesterday, in my opinion.
Enjoy the furious middle of the comeback, as the Cubs scored 7 quick runs in just two innings:
And, of course, enjoy the ending if you missed it:
The game also featured the best Seventh Inning Stretch in decades, so that helps push this one over the top.
