Dean’s milestone moment highlights Cubs’ 16-run outburst

Justin Dean has an interesting prize waiting for him in Des Moines — a World Series ring.

Dean was a designated pinch-runner for the Dodgers last season. He appeared in 18 regular-season and 13 playoff games but only saw 2 at-bats.

So Dean, 29, has earned a World Series ring, but he was still searching for his first major-league hit when he stepped to the plate for the first time with the Cubs and smacked a 3-run triple over the right-fielder's head.

The hit capped a long, challenging climb through baseball for Dean, who was drafted in the 17th round in 2018 out of Lenoir-Rhyne University.

“Once I settled in, almost cried,” Dean said. “Kept it inside. I'm super happy, I've been waiting a long time for that. Super happy it came at this stadium.”

Perhaps some Cubs fans looked at the scoreboard Friday and began to tear up at the sight of 16 runs scored. The Cubs scored 7 in the first inning alone and cruised to a 16-2 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays at Wrigley Field.

The Cubs scored 8 runs on Wednesday against Colorado, now 16. Is this a sign their long, brutal lack of clutch hitting is finally over?

“It's two good days of baseball,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “The task is to do it tomorrow. We played two good days of offensive baseball. That's a good thing, for sure.”

Catcher Carson Kelly had the biggest hit of the first inning, a first-pitch grand slam that landed just beneath the left-field scoreboard. Kelly finished the day with a career-high 6 RBI.

“Hitting is contagious,” Kelly said. “You get a big swing or a good at-bat where a guy walks, you can feel that momentum. This team is so good at just continuing to do that and get it to the next guy. When things like that happen, we can get the offense rolling.”

A couple guys who were overdue for big games collected 3 hits — Nico Hoerner and Seiya Suzuki. Pete Crow-Armstrong went 3-for-3 with 2 walks, but he was already the team's hottest hitter. PCA now has 27 walks, compared to 29 all of last season.

Toronto starter Kevin Gausman helped get the Cubs rolling by giving up 4 walks in the first inning. He left after two innings, which meant Toronto had to dig deep into the bullpen before finally throwing outfielder Myles Straw on the mound in the seventh.

“Gausman, he's one of the better guys at avoiding the walk,” Counsell said. “So we did a good job against him to get that rally moving. We made him come in the zone and we laid off the split down, laid off the slider away for the righties, and that's important.”

Cubs starter Ben Brown saw his streak of 66⅔ innings without giving up a home run — longest in the majors — come to an end when George Springer went deep in the sixth inning. With a big lead, Counsell felt comfortable taking Brown out of the game after six with just 75 pitches thrown.

It was also a good time to get Crow-Armstrong off his feet and send in Dean, who was called up from the Triple-A Iowa Cubs on Friday morning, taking the spot of Moises Ballesteros.

Dean wore No. 1, which he said he used as a kid while playing for the Carolina Cubs travel team. Dean is a native of Mauldin, South Carolina, which is maybe best known as the hometown of NBA legend Kevin Garnett.

Garnett famously left Mauldin to spend his senior year of high school at Farragut Academy on the West Side in 1994-95, which was before Dean was born.

“Apparently, I saw him when I was a little kid,” Dean said. “My parents told me that. I don't remember meeting him. Great dude, though. Shoutout to KG.”

There was a KG on the mound for Toronto when Friday's game began. Maybe it's all connected.