Ross blasts 100th homer in Cubs win
Contrary to what some good-natured folks may believe, Cubs catcher David Ross reached the century mark in home runs before he reached the century mark in age.
Even though he's retiring at the end of this season, he reached 100 homers well before he's eligible for an AARP card.
The 39-year-old Ross put a large charge into a baseball Friday and into a 6-2 Cubs victory over the Philadelphia Phillies at Wrigley Field.
The game was delayed by rain for 56 minutes in the top of the seventh inning and for 37 minutes in the top of the ninth.
In the Cubs' 4-run fourth inning, Ross connected on a 1-0 pitch from Phillies starting pitcher Adam Morgan and sent it against the Nuveen investments sign behind the left-field bleachers.
Ross' teammates had been counting down to the big moment, and they celebrated in the dugout while waiting for him to circle the bases.
“I think my favorite moment while all this was going on was rounding second base and looking in the dugout,” he said. “It makes me smile every time, seeing everybody so happy for me and counting down for me. They're as happy as I am. That makes me feel good.
“It impacted the game like that. It's kind of cool to do it at home. I run down to the outfield before the game and since I hit 99, all I hear is, ‘Hit a homer, Grandpa.' Nobody knows my first name. Nobody knows my first name anymore. That was cool.”
Even cooler was the curtain call Ross received from the 38,941 fans in attendance.
“How about that?” he said. “I'm not used to those. That was a little fun. When the fans are into it, there's not a better feeling in the world, when fans help bring that energy and are cheering for you. When I ran back out of the dugout (for the curtain call), they were going crazy.”
Ross' homer was a blast. The Cubs got a huge homer, size wise, to start the fourth inning, when Jorge Soler rocketed one off the videoboard in left.
“It feels really good, man,” Soler said through his translator, coach Henry Blanco.
The Cubs also got a homer from Kris Bryant leading off the fifth.
Ross came to the Cubs last year, and one of his main jobs has been to catch lefty Jon Lester, who started and won Friday's game to improve to 5-3 with a 2.48 RBI.
Lester gave Ross a bottle of champagne for the 100th homer, and manager Joe Maddon presented Ross with a bottle of wine.
“It was awesome,” said Lester, who worked 6⅓ innings, giving up 6 hits and 2 runs, 1 earned. “Obviously, going into last year, we knew where he was. I did. He'll admit he didn't swing the bat like he wanted to last year. It's nice to see him feel comfortable and be the old Rossie. I'm glad he did it. It was kind of nice he did it the day I was pitching to kind of add to it a little bit.”
Lester rebounded from his previous start, a 2⅔-inning performance at San Francisco on May 21.
“When somebody has a bad start like that, it's easy to panic,” he said. “I've had them before in my career. I've had worse. It's part of the game. I wasn't worried about it. I worked on some things in the bullpen, came back out and obviously threw the ball a lot better today, better results, just better overall stuff compared to out there (San Francisco). I wasn't worried about last start at all.”
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