That’s a win! That’s a walk-off! That’s a sweep! The Cubs are back to .500!
With an assist from the free runner on second base in extra innings thing, Jason Heyward came off the bench in the 10th inning to give the Cubs a walk-off winner. That was an awesome ending to a game that felt like it kept peppering us with moments to be frustrated about. I’m totally happy in the moment, but I was writing all this stuff down as it was happening …
The Cubs got their three regulation runs early on with a Willson Contreras RBI single, and a two-run Kris Bryant double. Trevor Williams pitched pretty well through his five innings of work, with a two-run monster Pete Alonso homer – he does that – the only blemish. The Cubs gave up the lead in the 7th when Jason Adam hit a foot with a breaking ball, and Ryan Tepera missed his spot badly enough to get crushed for a double. It happens. It’s annoying. Otherwise, the bullpen was fantastic.
Javy Báez had a rough night, and a particularly rough moment in the 7th when he didn’t run out a pop up that dropped, and should’ve been a double. Given that the play was followed immediately by a groundball double-play, it was all the more frustrating that Báez was not standing on second base after this (the Cubs caught a momentary break on replay to reverse the out call, but the uncharacteristic lack of awareness had already taken place):
This is the Javy play for those who didn't see. Deeply frustrated, which is understandable. But after that 1st click of reaction, you gotta go. Then, after that, you can't turn your awareness off. Javy's awareness is usually elite, so it feels even worse. pic.twitter.com/qUdbOH59gg
— Bleacher Nation Cubs (@BleacherNation) April 23, 2021
The Cubs had an even better shot to get the lead back in the 8th, when Jake Marisnick led off with a triple. But an Austin Romine pop-out, an Ian Happ strikeout, and a Willson Contreras strikeout later, and Marisnick never moved. Well, except when Romine hit him with a foul ball, but that doesn’t count on the scoreboard.
Then there was more frustration in store in the 9th, when Bryant led off with a single, but Rizzo and Báez struck out. So Bryant went about stealing second base with two outs to give the Cubs a shot, and he beat the throw easily. The ump on the field called that Bryant popped off while the tag was applied, and replay couldn’t determine that the call was wrong. So out stood. The problem? It was *crystal* clear that Bryant never lost contact with the bag. So it was the wrong call (and a stupid one – I freaking hate that pop-off tag call). And then the replay failed to correct it, because they absolutely hate overturning anything.
Dan Winkler was asked to do the 10th inning thing, immediately throwing a wild pitch to put the lead run at third base. But a strikeout and couple walks later, he was able to get a groundball double-play to get out of it. Craig Kimbrel had pitched the 9th in extremely breezy fashion, so I’ll admit, I wondered why Kimbrel wasn’t asked to go another one. But you prefer not to do it, and all’s well that ends well.
Despite that frustration stuff, on the whole, still more to like from the Cubs tonight than from the Mets. They’ve gotta be feeling pretty chapped, themselves.