Bote does it again as Cubs walk off a winner
How about another summer Boat ride in Chicago, not on the water but around the bases?
Your captain is David Bote, aka "Boat" on this players weekend, when the guys wear their nicknames on the back of their uniforms.
Bote provided another splash Friday with a no-doubter of a home run in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the Cubs 3-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds at Wrigley Field.
He picked on an 0-2 pitch from Reds reliever Raisel Iglesias and crushed it beyond the left field bleachers for his second walk-off homer this month. On Aug. 12, his grand slam walk-off winner capped off a Sunday night moonlit cruise against the Washington Nationals.
This stuff is getting habit-forming for Bote, a 25-year-old rookie.
"It's exciting every time," he said. "Your teammates celebrating there at home plate. I don't know what was in that Gatorade bath. It smelled horrible but it feels great, so it's fun."
Bote had slumped at bit at the plate after the Washington walk-off, but he cited some well-grounded veterans in the clubhouse who helped him get his own feet back on the ground. One was recently acquired reliever Brandon Kintzler.
"Just being able to stay within yourself," he said. "I think I've pressed at times, not necessarily mentally, but I think my body's kind of just taken over some things in certain situations. Actually a big shout-out to Kintzler (Thursday). He said, 'Dude, just be you. You belong here. Just be one of the guys. I can't imagine how hard it is to come down from what happened against the Nationals, but you belong here, and you're a good player. Just stick to what you do'
"You know that, and people can say that. But for whatever reason, when he said it, it really clicked in."
There were a couple of other stories buried by Bote on this cool Friday. Newly acquired second baseman Daniel Murphy hit his first Cubs homer, a solo shot that put the Cubs up 2-1 in the eighth before Pedro Strop blew a save in the ninth, giving up a game-tying homer to Eugenio Suarez.
Bote's fellow "older" rookie, pitcher Alec Mills, made his first major-league start and went 5⅔ innings, giving up 3 hits and 1 run.
Both were cheering for each other.
"Fires me up," Bote said of Mills' performance. "I love that. He was out there, he was challenging. He didn't pitch timid at all. He was going after 'em. He hung those two breaking balls (back-to-back doubles in the second). That was the only mistakes that he had. I've seen him pitch, and he's had some tough luck in Triple-A in the games I've seen most of the year."
Mills, 26, was called up from Class AAA Iowa to make the spot start. He worked a game in relief earlier this season and he could be here for a while. He gave a shout-out to Bote.
"Nothing about today surprised me, no," Mills said. "The guy works his tail off. I couldn't be happier for him."
Mills picked up his first big-league hit, a line drive single to right field in the third. He said he was not thinking past Friday.
"I think it's just come up here and do what I can for today," said Mills, who walked one and struck out eight. "Whatever happens after that happens. I just wanted to come up here and eat as many innings as possible and give us a chance to win."
The Cubs moved to 21 games above .500 (74-53) with their sixth walk-off win of the season, making them 40-23 at Wrigley Field.
They did it with guys who weren't around at the beginning of the season, most notably Bote and Mills.
"With a dash of (reliever) Jesse Chavez and Daniel Murphy," said manager Joe Maddon. "Look up and down the whole group right there. (Jorge) De La Rosa, obviously Kintzler and everybody else. It's a great job by our guys up top (the front office) filling in the blanks. We've had injuries, and I like the group right now."