Cubs beat the odds, Braves, with magical comeback

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Photo from USA Today

CHICAGO – It was a long shot before the first pitch was even thrown. With the temperature hovering around 33 degrees, strong winds blowing in off the lake, and a steady, unrelenting mist the game at Wrigley Field arguably should have never been allowed to start.

“I give both teams a lot of credit under the circumstances’ Cubs manager Joe Maddon told the Chicago Sun-Times, “because that game should never have been played.’ Maddon, known for his unconventional style, was not shy. “I thought the 2008 World Series game I participated in was the worst. It just got surpassed,’ Maddon said to NBC Chicago. “This is not baseball weather. That is the worst elements I ever participated in in a baseball game. Ever.’

To better illustrate how nasty the weather was that day, the two games scheduled to follow it, set to go on April 15th and 16th respectively, were both later cancelled due to inclement weather in the case of the former and icy temperatures for the latter.

“I was afraid of the infielders catching the ball’ Braves manager Brian Snitker told the Atlanta Journal, “ They were literally freezing up, I just didn’t want them to tear a shoulder up of something like that.’

Speculation by baseball insiders was that the game was only allowed to start because the Braves only visit the Cubs once this year, and the weather over the next two games was forecasted to be even worse. We may never know, and MLB officials are off the hook, and likely breathing a sigh of relief, because of what happened in the eighth inning.

The game was pretty much wash in favor of the Braves right off the bat. In the first each team got a run, but the Braves proceeded to score nine more unanswered runs over the next four innings. By the start of the fifth the score sat at 10-2 in favor of Atlanta. The Cubs wrung out a few more runs in the sixth and seventh innings but at the start of the eighth the score was still a daunting 10-5, with the Braves holding a commanding lead. The Braves made a change, going into their bullpen for a new pitcher, all but sealing Chicago’s fate, considering the utter dominance of Atlanta’s relievers through these first few weeks of the young season. The game looked pretty much over.

 

Then the voodoo began.

 

The North Siders proceeded to score nine runs off of three hits, five walks, two hit batters, a wild pitch and an error for an magical eighth, a monumental comeback with the 14-10 Cubs lead. Considering the weather; that’s insanity.

In the bottom of the eighth, right-fielder Jason Heyward got hit by a pitch, putting him on first. After a strikeout by left-fielder Kyle Schwarber, pinch-hitter Tommy La Stella singled, pushing Heyward to second, first baseman Efren Navarro then struck out, giving the Cubs 2 outs.

A quick side note to outline some interesting math, Brendan Miller of Cubs Insider wrote that at this point in the game, Chicago’s statistical chance of winning sat at 0.6%. They would end the frame at 99%.

With runners on first and second and two outs, third baseman Kris Bryant was hit by a pitch loading the bases. A single from catcher Willson Contreras and a walk given up to center-fielder Ben Zobrist cut the Brave’s lead to 3 making it 10-7. Then second baseman Javier Baez doubled deep into the centerfield gap, clearing the bases to tie the game. Two more walks loaded the bases again. Then Kyle Schwarber, who was up again after striking out earlier in the inning, was walked, allowing Baez to score. Then Tommy La Stella was walked, allowing shortstop Addison Russell to score. Then Braves catcher Kurt Suzuki threw a cutoff into the outfield, allowing Heyward and Schwarber to score again, giving Chicago a four-run lead before the merciful final out ended the inning.

This is what the play-by-play looked like.

Screenshot from ESPN.

While this kind of comeback isn’t unprecedented, doing it with numb fingers and wet base paths, is unheard of. It’s simply bonkers. Twitter quickly went wild, with celebrities, media outlets, and Major League Baseball itself tweeting out shocked congratulations to the Cubs.