NEWSLETTER
THEY DID IT! THE CHICAGO CUBS HAVE WON THE 2022 BASEBALL GAME!!!!!!
Well. A baseball game. The one that stops their own 10-game losing streak, and also snaps the Braves’ 14-game winning streak. You knew baseball was gonna get funky on you at some point.
Jonathan Villar pinch hit for Jason Heyward in the 8th inning against a lefty, took a walk, moved to second on an Andrelton Simmons sac bunt, stole third, and then scored on a very shallow Christopher Morel sac fly. Small ball for the literal win:
Willson Contreras absolutely losing his mind there. I love it. Great slide there by Villar, and great job by Morel putting the ball in play with two strikes against a very good pitcher.
Keegan Thompson looked EXACTLY like you’d hope he would look, coming off a couple really rough starts where he felt like his mechanics were off. Thompson was filling up the zone, the velocity looked good, he got tons of whiffs, and he looked completely comfortable all day. The only two hits he gave up on the day were both on terrible contact.
Thompson wound up completing six innings and pitching into the seventh, a career first. You love to see it for so many reasons.
Things got scary in the 9th as David Robertson loaded the bases on two walks and a HBP (oddly, he wasn’t “wild,” he just missed on some reeeeally close swing pitches). But Cub-killer Orlando Arcia grounded out to end it.
For the Braves, it not only marked their first loss in 15 games, but also the first time they even TRAILED in the last 46 innings. Clearly, these Cubs are giant slayers. Must’ve had a secret weapon today. (UPDATE: Two of them, actually!)
