Cubs complete 'crazy' sweep with 13-inning win
Baseball is the craziest, isn't it?
How else do you explain what happened on a sunny Mother's Day Sunday at Wrigley Field?
In a game the Cubs had no business winning in a lot of ways, they somehow pulled out a 4-3, 13-inning victory to complete a four-game sweep of the Washington Nationals and extend their overall winning streak to seven games.
Javier Baez hit a line-shot home run into the left-field bleachers against Blake Treinen with 1 out to cap this wild game.
"It's crazy, isn't it?" said Cubs manager Joe Maddon, whose team is 24-6. "The one thing that sums it up, and I mean this, and I have the privilege of being in our dugout: Our guys were in that game to the last drop. Long game like that and we're playing well, you could just mail it in. Our guys were into that game until the very last drop, I promise you that.
"To the last moment, everybody was there to win that game, and that's a beautiful thing."
Did we say this was crazy? Here's how crazy:
• For the second day in row, Maddon used all his bench players. With a partially depleted bullpen, he had to use reliever Trevor Cahill to bat. Cahill led off the bottom of the seventh inning with a single and later scored on Kris Bryant's 2-run single that tied the game at 3-3. Maddon also used a starting pitcher, Jason Hammel, to pinch hit.
• Cubs ace Jake Arrieta didn't have his best command and proved he was human, as he exited after only 5 innings with the Cubs down 3-1.
• Maddon topped even himself in the alchemy department by walking Nationals superstar Bryce Harper intentionally twice with runners on first and second. The moved worked in the 10th inning, as the next hitter, Ryan Zimmerman, flied out. In the 12th, Zimmerman grounded out after the Cubs intentionally walked Harper with men on first and second.
On the day, Harper walked six times - tying a Major League record - with 3 being intentional. He also was hit by a pitch, giving him 7 plate appearances without an official at-bat. On Saturday, Harper came up 4 times without an at-bat.
"It's happened before to me; not at this level," Harper said of all the walks. "It was definitely when I was younger, in high school and college and whatnot. They had a plan. They had a plan and unfortunately it worked."
The plan was not to let the one man who could beat the Cubs do it.
"How good he is, if the other guy gets you, that's fine," Maddon said, referring to Zimmerman. "You have no problem with that whatsoever. I know that he's not as hot as he can be coming into this series, but you don't want to get him hot. I've been part of that in the past. We did what we thought we had to do today, and it happened to work. So good for our guys."
Nationals manager Dusty Baker seemed chagrined but he admitted it was probably the right thing to do.
"It might be, but the fans didn't come here to see him walk," Baker said. "They come to see him swing the bat."
In the early stages of this 4-hour, 54-minute day of wonderful baseball mess, Arrieta ran his pitch count to 100 over 5 innings. He gave up 6 hits and 3 runs (2 earned) while walking four, striking out seven and uncorking 3 wild pitches. He said he wasn't necessarily trying to put Harper on base aside from the fourth-inning intentional walk.
"I didn't command the ball really all that well, especially with my sinking fastball," he said. "I was erratic around the strike zone. There were times I tried to backdoor some off-speed to him, and I missed under the strike zone on the inner half of the plate, which made it hard for Tim (starting catcher Federowicz) to really handle those pitches.
"Commanding the ball today was a little off. He's a big weapon of theirs we obviously tried to neutralize throughout the series."
As for Baez, he entered as a pinch hitter in the eighth and stayed in at third base. He was going to be the emergency catcher if something happened to backup David Ross, who entered in the seventh.
Baez lined out to end the eighth with a man on base. His flyout in the 10th stranded a pair, but he found redemption with one swing of the bat in the 13th.
"I was just trying to get on base and get a good pitch to hit," he said. "That guy (Treinen) is throwing hard, 97 (mph) with sink. After the second strike, I just sat on the slider because they have been throwing it to me this series a lot. I was just looking for that pitch.
"The most important thing is that we never give up. We had nobody on the bench, and we were still playing hard and giving everything we have."
Scouting report
Chicago Cubs vs. San Diego Padres at Wrigley Field
TV: Comcast SportsNet today and Wednesday; WPWR Tuesday
Radio: WSCR 670-AM
Pitching matchups: The Cubs' Jon Lester (3-1) vs. Cesar Vargas (0-1) today; Kyle Hendricks (2-2) vs. Colin Rea (3-1) Tuesday; John Lackey (4-1) vs. Drew Pomeranz (3-3) Wednesday. All games 7:05 p.m.
At a glance: The Padres entered Sunday last in the NL West. Matt Kemp had 8 homers and 23 RBI while Wil Myers had a line of .282/.316/.476 along with a team-leading 35 hits. Fernando Rodney, who pitched in 14 games for the Cubs last year, went into Sunday with 8 saves. Playing their home games at pitcher-friendly Petco Park, the Padres are near the bottom in most offensive categories. Their team ERA of 4.11 was eighth in the NL. Weather could be a factor this week, with rain expected, especially Tuesday. The Cubs are in the midst of a 10-game homestand.
Next: Pittsburgh Pirates at Wrigley Field, Friday-Sunday
<span title="charref:8"></span> - Bruce Miles