Un-be-lievable.
That game went from snooze-fest to nail-biter in a HURRY. And I don’t think I’m too far off base saying the Cubs got pretty lucky in that one. Not only were they able to tie the game in the 9th with a runner scoring from second on a wild pitch. And not only did they manage to win despite scoring just one run after loading the bases with no outs in the 11th. And not only did Ketel Marte surprisingly decide not to tag up and test Mike Tauchman with the game on the line. But they won the game with Keegan Thompson, of all people, throwing two shutout innings, both with ghost runners starting on second base, and barely finding the strike zone.
And while we’re at it, for the second night in a row, the game ended with the umpires, on a strike-three appeal going against Christian Walker. My god.
And, hey, while we’re talking about cool things that happened, Hector Neris had a good inning, despite working for his third consecutive day, Ben Brown was awesome (more on him tomorrow, for sure), and Michael Busch hit a home run for the fifth consecutive game!
The Cubs may have out-hit the Diamondbacks 9-3 tonight, but it just did not ever feel like the Cubs were taking this one home. Wow. I feel great.
Okay, but the star of the game is Nico Hoerner. He got the Cubs going with a big hit in the ninth and then scored from SECOND BASE on a wild pitch, before plating the game-winning run in extra innings. More on his performance coming in a separate post after I click publish here. What a game, what a win. The Cubs needed that.