Re-Pete performance: PCA caps Cubs comeback after fielding gaffe
The Cubs may have hit rock bottom, then bounced back in a span of three innings.
Trailing 6-1 in the seventh Thursday after Pete Crow-Armstrong lost a flyball in the sky and it turned into a 2-run, inside-the-park homer, the Cubs rallied for 4 runs in the ninth inning. PCA delivered the walk-off, RBI single to lift the Cubs past the Athletics 7-6, ending their eight-game home losing streak.
“We're big on staying in the fight,” Crow-Armstrong said. “This kind of stuff is exactly what we're capable of. I'm growing up a little bit, and proud of that, but I've got to keep it going the rest of the year.”
For most of the night, the theme was how bad could things get for the Cubs? The camouflaged flyball might dominate the video lowlights, but a better question was how the Cubs could manage so little offense on a warm night with the wind blowing out. The Athletics hit four home runs to build the lead.
“Pretty helpless feeling,” PCA said. “It's just about moving on. There's not much you can really do about that except hope you see it next time.”
Crow-Armstrong found some quick redemption with a home run in the bottom of the sixth, then Ian Happ added his 14th of the season to make it 6-3 in the seventh.
“It was very difficult to see (in the twilight),” manager Craig Counsell said of PCA's miscue. “You feel terrible, it's a big play, it's multiple runs. I told him when he came in the dugout, 'Go out and have a great at-bat.' How you can affect this now is you can't think about what happened, you have to go have a great at-bat.”
One odd twist to the ninth-inning rally was the Cubs had the tying run erased at second base when Nico Hoerner was caught stealing. The inning began with a Michael Busch double, followed by a Happ double one out later, then Hoerner singled, with Happ stopping at third.
The caught stealing was just a brief setback. Moises Ballesteros kept the game alive with an infield single, pinch-hitter Seiya Suzuki singled, then a slump-ridden Dansby Swanson bounced one up the middle for a game-tying RBI.
“We finally put together an inning where we strung together a whole bunch of pretty darn good at-bats,” Counsell said. “I'm most happy for Dansby. It's been rough, but he came up big. It was a huge hit and it was a really good at-bat.”
Everyone will be anxious to write the story of how this was the long-needed spark that turns the tide for the Cubs. They were stuck in a 5-18 slump since May 9.
Maybe the Cubs need to make sure Anthony Rizzo stops by more often. The retired first baseman followed the recent fan trend by taking his shirt off when Happ hit the seventh-inning home run. Then Rizzo was waiting for Crow-Armstrong in the dugout after the field cleared.
“Hopefully we tell that story in October,” Counsell said. “It was one game. It was some big moments for some players, which I think is a big deal. That's the building block for me, is some big moments for some guys, some needed moments for some guys. But we've got a challenge tomorrow we've got to figure out.”
Pitcher Shota Imanaga essentially threw a quality start. If the flyball to center ended the inning, he would have allowed just 2 runs over 6. But he was tagged for the inside-the-park dinger, then gave up solo shots to Tyler Soderstrom and Jonah Heim in the seventh to make it 6 earned runs allowed.