Wild, wacky loss for Cubs
MILWAUKEE — Go to a baseball game and you're liable to see something you've never seen before.
Forget for a moment whether you'd want to see it again.
But there were plenty of strange happenings Friday night in the Cubs' 5-4 loss the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park. The zaniest stuff happened late.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, the Cubs called on reliever Kevin Gregg, who hadn't pitched all season. (No, that's not the crazy part.)
Gregg gave up a leadoff single to Jean Segura, who then stole second base with Ryan Braun at the plate. Braun walked. In came reliever Shawn Camp. Camp attempted a pickoff play as Segura broke for third base. Segura scampered back to second, but Braun also ended up there.
The Cubs tagged both runners on the base, and Braun was out because the base belonged to Segura. However, Segura apparently got confused and ran back to first base. The Cubs claimed they tagged Segura when he was off the base and that the umpires didn't see it. By Rule 7.08(i), Segura was allowed to run back to first as long as he wasn't trying to make a “travesty” of the game.
Rickie Weeks struck out. With Jonathan Lucroy up, Segura took off for second and was thrown out, which means he stole second base and was caught stealing second in the same inning. (And Camp was on the field for three outs without the ball being put into play.)
“I don't know if that's ever happened in the history of the game,” said Cubs manager Dale Sveum, who was ejected in the sixth for arguing about home-plate umpire Chris Guccione's demeanor toward Cubs pitcher Jeff Samardzija. “Guy just stole second and got thrown out at second in the same inning.”
Added umpire chief Tom Hallion to a pool reporter: “Bizarre, but the ruling was all correct.”
In the ninth, Cubs pinch hitter Dioner Navarro singled with two outs. The Cubs sent in pinch runner Julio Borbon, who was claimed Friday off waivers from Texas. Borbon had just gotten to the park at the start of the ninth after taking a limo from O'Hare.
He was promptly thrown out trying to steal second.
“I ran a couple sprints up and down the dugout and just went out there,” Borbon said. “They gave me the green light right away. He wanted me to make sure if I got a jump to be aggressive and go for it.”
As for the rest, Samardzija gave up a 3-run homer to Braun in the first, throwing 27 pitches. He settled down after that.
Sveum became incensed in the sixth when Guccione called a 2-2 pitch on Braun a ball, and after Samardzija looked in, Guccione took off his mask and looked out to Samardzija. Out came Sveum, who was ejected for arguing. He also pantomimed Guccione's mask removal.
“Samardzija was pitching a great game,” Sveum said. “After what happened in the first inning and him to battle like that and to get excited about one pitch and for (Guccione) to rip his mask off is not acceptable.”
Ÿ Follow Bruce's Cubs and baseball reports via Twitter@BruceMiles2112, and check out his Chicago's Inside Pitch blog at dailyherald.com.