For the second night in a row, the Chicago Cubs’ Double-A affiliate gave us the kind of game we hoped we were going to see the big league team pull off. But, hey, enjoy what you can get.
For the Tennessee Smokies, it was coming back from a huge deficit late to walk it off.
Going into the bottom of the 8th inning, the Smokies trailed the Birmingham Barons (White Sox) by five runs. But the Smokies chipped away, scoring a couple, making the game 7-4 heading into the 9th. Maybe they would have a chance.
But then the Barons scored two more of their own, making it 9-4 heading into the bottom of the 9th and that was probably that. Except the Smokies started stacking up baserunners in the 9th, making things increasingly interesting. After a leadoff strikeout, they went walk, single, single, walk, walk, strikeout, double, walk, walk-off hit:
It was a nice instant redemption for PCA, who’d struck out to open up the inning. It was also PCA’s second walk-off hit for the Smokies in the last few weeks.
Another look from the team: