Thank god for that win. Not just for avoiding the four-game sweep at home, and not for what it’ll do in the standings (the Cubs are, um, unlikely to contend … ). But instead, thank god for a late COMEBACK win (the Cubs’ first of the year?), that came with a set of actually great, enjoyable moments.
Specifically, with the Cubs down a run in the bottom of the 8th, Patrick Wisdom and Frank Schwindel went back-to-back (for the second straight day) to take the lead, and ultimately win the game. Man that was fun, and I needed that.
.@PatrickWisdom5 has homered in three straight games!#DailyWisdom pic.twitter.com/skS3kUVJSo
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) May 22, 2022
Back-to-back homers on back-to-back days for Frank Schwindel and Patrick Wisdom! pic.twitter.com/IlB3FZpise
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) May 22, 2022
The first @Cubs teammates since Ernie Banks & Jim Hickman ('69) to hit back-to-back HR's on back-to-back days. pic.twitter.com/C1ImWY0abo
— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) May 22, 2022
Cubs avoided some ugly history in the process, too:
https://twitter.com/MLBastian/status/1528173020023504903
Wade Miley CRUISED through five innings, and he was looking like nobody was going to be able to square him up. And then in the sixth inning, he left a few over the middle of the plate, and the Diamondbacks hit three line drives right back to center field, and wound up scoring three to tie the game. I’m not even sure it was a matter of Miley “wearing down” or whatever – it was just he made a series of poorly-located pitches, and the Diamondbacks hitters just went with those pitches hard up the middle. Kudos to them, bummer for Miley and the Cubs.
The Cubs had their own chance to get it back in the bottom of the 6th, with opening walks to Frank Schwindel and Alfonso Rivas. But rather than have Andrelton Simmons bunt, he was swinging away … right into a tailor-made double play (I don’t have a HUGE beef with the decision, because a bunt is not guaranteed to succeed, either). After P.J. Higgins walked, David Ross elected to let Rafael Ortega stay in to face the lefty (pretty much a giveaway at bat) rather than going to Christopher Morel (who probably would’ve faced a righty, but isn’t that better than Ortega against a lefty?). Unless maybe Morel is limited today after the knee-on-knee slide.
The Diamondbacks temporarily took the lead off of Keegan Thompson thanks to soft contact that found grass (he otherwise looked juuuuust fine), and it felt like they had blown it again, both by losing the lead and then failing to score in the 6th.
Thankfully, SchWisdom had the big moment in the bottom of the 8th, and none of that mattered.