Cubs walk-off wonders in 2-1 win over Mets
Just call them the Incredible Walking Cubs. And who'd have thought that?
Not known much for their willingness to take walks or ability to get on base in recent years, the Cubs are finding themselves near the top in those categories this year.
Wednesday night at cold and windy Wrigley Field, Chris Coghlan drew a bases-loaded walk against Jeurys Familia in the bottom of the ninth inning and the Cubs walked away with a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over the New York Mets.
Getting the Cubs as an organization to have their hitters be more patient at the plate has been something akin to trying to turning an ocean liner around, but they appear to be heading in a different direction.
They entered the game ranked second in the National League in walks and fifth in on-base percentage.
“To accept your walks, man,” said manager Joe Maddon, whose team has beaten the Mets three in a row to improve to 18-15. “Gosh, guys come with that chip. Some guys don't come with that chip, in the computer, the hard drive. The RAM's not necessarily large enough.
“Guys just sometimes want to get hits. They don't understand the importance of accepting your walks. You have to buy it. You have to buy patience or develop it.”
For Coghlan, all he was thinking about was trying not to get too excited in his one-out plate appearance after Jorge Soler struck out.
“In those situation, you have to really control your emotions, because you want to be the guy,” Coghlan said. “You want to be the guy. Everybody wants to be the guy to drive in the winning run. I think that's the biggest deal, to be able to control your emotions. He really didn't give me anything to hit, so I took my walk.”
Coghlan was here last year, when the Cubs were 10th in walks and 13th in OBP.
“Are you comparing last year to this year?” he asked. “I think we're a totally different team last year compared to this year. We're different players here. No disrespect, I don't think that's probably a good comparison to do that. We're young, so there are guys who are still trying to learn. But we're a totally different team offensively.”
The other fun subplot Wednesday was the pitching battle between the Cubs' Jason Hammel and Mets ace Matt Harvey. The Mets got a run in the sixth off Hammel, but he was able to outlast Harvey, pitching 8 innings to Harvey's 7.
The Cubs tied the game in the eighth as Addison Russel singled with one out, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on Dexter Fowler's single. Anthony Rizzo led off the ninth with a single. Matt Szczur pinch ran and went to third on Starlin Castro's single to left. An intentional walk to Miguel Montero set up the winner.
“Tonight, facing Harvey, it was going to be the first guy to blink,” Hammel said. “And I was actually the first guy to blink. We battled back. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to pitch in the strike zone, pitch to contact and do my minimize my pitches and get as deep as I can.”