Mervis endures spotlight while Steele leads Cubs to much-needed victory
With two outs in the eighth inning and a man on second, Miami decided to walk Trey Mancini and give Matt Mervis one more chance at the plate in his major-league debut.
The crowd buzzed. Mervis stepped into the box against left-hander Tanner Scott and ripped an RBI single to right-center field.
Mervis' first major-league hit carried the highest exit velocity of the day at 111.2 miles per hour. The most consequential hit was Ian Happ's 2-run homer in the fifth inning as the Cubs returned to Wrigley Field with a 4-1 victory over the Marlins.
"That was fun. I was hoping for the fourth at-bat, just trying not to overthink it," Mervis said after the game. "I was more anxious when we got two outs in the top of the second, knowing that my at-bat was coming up. Once I went through my routine and stepped in the box, it was more back to playing baseball."
Mervis got a standing ovation before his first plate appearance, and went 1-for-4 on the day. He struck out in the second inning against Miami starter Edward Cabrera, grounded to second and struck out again before collecting his milestone hit. The first pitch Mervis saw was a 92-mph changeup.
"Cabrera's got really good stuff," Mervis said. "Just tried to stick to my plan and I expanded a little bit throughout the game, but I'll chalk that up to being excited and hopefully hone it in tomorrow.
"I've seen really good stuff before. I played against really good pitchers in the WBC and spring training, so I wasn't shellshocked or anything, it was just a tough at-bat."
This was Mervis' day in the sun, and another day at the office for Cubs starter Justin Steele, who needed just 86 pitches to complete 7 full innings with 1 run allowed. He's now 5-0 on the season with an NL-best 1.45 ERA.
This was also the home debut for catcher Miguel Amaya, who started for the second straight game. While he was flawless in the field, Amaya is dealing with some bad luck at the plate. He's gone 0-for-4 with a sacrifice fly and hit by pitch, and all five of his outs had an exit velocity above 100 mph. He had a deep fly out in the fifth inning Friday and hit a rocket in the seventh that third baseman Jean Segura made a lunging catch.
"For me and Amaya to work together for the first time here at Wrigley Field, that was one of the guys back at the alt site (South Bend in 2020) I was throwing to, facing all the time," Steele said. "It's really special to work with him in the big leagues. He's worked his tail off to get here, he's a really special kid, so it was a really good day."
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