The season has but a few games left in it, so we don’t have much room left for wild, one-off things to happen. So I’m gonna celebrate a weirdly specific one, since Rafael Ortega hooked us up last night.
What you undoubtedly noticed about last night’s game is that Ortega kicked it off with a no-doubt shot to right:
The best way to begin a game, in our opinion. pic.twitter.com/KFFdVI1s67
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) September 30, 2021
And that he stole home, way too easily, as part of a double-steal:
The @Cubs steal a run! pic.twitter.com/z8KvrBOV7X
— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) September 30, 2021
(You may not have thought about the fact that he also stole third in the process, because it’s not as flashy, but it does factor into this thing.)
You probably weren’t wondering about how rare it is for a hitter to lead the game off with a homer and then also steal third and home in a game, but that’s what weird stats are for!
According to MLB’s Stat of the Day, Ortega was the first player in the Modern Era (i.e., after 1900 when we can kinda trust the stats) to lead off a game with a homer, steal third, and steal home. No one has done that before. Yup, it’s a hyper specific combination of things, but they’re all good things, and it’s fun (to me) to know we just saw something that has never happened before. Cheers to Ortega!
And more cheers to Ortega: the 30-year-old’s breakout season continues to be dang good, with a .289/.358/.467 slash line (121 wRC+) and near-average defense in the outfield. Against righties – whom he should face, exclusively, in 2022 – he is scorching: .320/.374/.531 (140). I have no problem with him entering 2022 in the outfield mix, so long as it’s part of a platoon/time-sharing arrangement, and doesn’t preclude you from doing anything else this offseason.