Young heroes: Horton’s longest outing, Shaw sacrifice fly lead Cubs to sweep
Depth hasn't always been the Cubs’ strong suit this season, but on Thursday, two rookies led the way in a 1-0 win over Cleveland in 10 innings at Wrigley Field
Matt Shaw finally got a chance to be the hero, with a walk-off sacrifice fly to deep center field to complete the three-game sweep of the Guardians. Pitcher Cade Horton, meanwhile, completed 7 (scoreless) innings for the first time at any level of professional baseball.
The winning sac fly came against one of the best closers in the game, Emmanuel Clase, with Shaw using a bat he borrowed from Michael Busch.
“(Clase) throws two pitches,” Shaw said. “One of them's a good fastball with cut. You know what you're getting, so I think the approach is pretty simple. I think the bottom line is you've got to be on time. That's what we were talking about in the dugout, and that's what we tried to execute.”
While Shaw's batting average sits at .218, he's gotten the worst hitting luck among Cubs regulars, according to StatCast, which has his expected batting average at .247.
“I think that's just part of the game,” he said. “You know, it's a long season, so keep grinding away at-bats and having a good process.”
Chris Flexen kept the Guardians off the scoreboard in the top of the 10th. Then Busch opened the bottom half of the inning with a groundout that sent automatic runner Nico Hoerner to third.
After giving up a combined 10 earned runs in his last two starts, Horton was at his best Thursday. Sure, Cleveland started the night on a six-game losing streak and hasn't been hitting the ball, but he still posted a long line of zeros.
“I think there was some delivery stuff, just working more north-south as opposed to east and west,” Horton said. “But I think the biggest thing was the mental side of the game and just slowing the game down and being in control and living pitch-to-pitch. I think that was the biggest difference tonight. So yeah, just controlling my emotions and settling in.”
Horton got a huge assist from catcher Reese McGuire, who threw out three of the seven runners Horton put on base and stopped the Guardians' momentum before it got rolling in the first inning.
Horton walked leadoff batter Steven Kwan on four pitches, then missed with his next throw to Kyle Manzardo. After a strike, Kwan took off for second and was thrown out by McGuire on a close play, which Cleveland chose not to challenge. Horton then quickly retired Manzardo and Jose Ramirez to end the inning.
In the fifth, with runners on first and third and one out, catcher Bo Naylor tried to steal second. McGuire managed to hold the runner at third, throw out Naylor and the inning ended with no damage.
In the sixth, McGuire extinguished a third base runner by throwing out Manzardo when he broke from first on a pitch in the dirt.
Before the game, Cubs manager Craig Counsell talked about what can make Horton successful.
“Cade's done a really good job of throwing strikes since he's been in the big leagues,” Counsell said. “That's the difference in a lot of starts for guys, did he miss on some fastball location. It's something you're always working on, always trying to get better, trying to get to like the good parts of the zone.”