The Cubs played a five hour nail biter in Milwaukee last night/this morning. The Cubs won, 2-1, in 13 innings in a game where Maddon used everyone except the four remaining starting pitchers.
Travis Wood pitched himself out of a bases loaded, no out jam during which Joe Maddon played musical chairs with his position players. Kris Bryant played LF, 3B, 1B and LF all in one half inning. Maddon played five infielders at one time. And the scary thought of Javy Baez playing first base was bad enough until he crossed back behind the mound to exchange gloves with Bryant like it was a summer sandlot pick-up game.
Wood became the eventual hero at the bat when he coaxed a bases loaded walk in the 13th. CSNChicago reported that when Wood inheriting two runners in the 12th inning, Maddon told Wood "Understand one thing: If you get
out of this, you get an at-bat. That kind of jacked him
up a bit. That’s just how he operates, man.” To escape a bases-loaded, no-out jam. Maddon went
with a five-infielder alignment as Wood induced a shallow fly ball to
center fielder Dexter Fowler and a pop-up to shortstop Addison Russell. After retiring Hernan Perez and Aaron Hill, Wood earned his at-bat by
forcing another pop-out, this time from pinch-hitter Martin Maldonado.
Wood then bailed out the offense again by drawing a five-pitch walk
against Carlos Torres – Milwaukee’s sixth pitcher – with two outs and
the bases loaded in the 13th inning.
The game was saved earlier by excellent defense by catcher David Ross. Ross threw out four runners on the base paths. Two came via attempted
steals of second base, and two were actually picked off second. Ross ran
from behind the plate all the way out to the baseline between second
and third on one of the pick-off plays.
Maddon pulled Anthony Rizzo for a pinch runner (Baez) late in the game when the Cubs were down a run. It was a curious move because in a tight game with the prospect of extra innings, Rizzo is the type of walk-off hitter you want in those situations. Since the Cubs won, and Baez scoring the tying run, made Maddon's move acceptable.
A concern was raised prior to the game that the Cubs seem to be lulled into losses by playing down to the level of their competition. Most of the Cubs losses have come from sub .500 teams. The Brewers are not a very good team. Last night they played without their best hitter, Ryan Braun. Still, the Cubs were baffled again by another young starting pitcher.
The victory did stop the club's second two-game losing streak of the year. But this was another nail-biting, long game where all hands were on deck. The Cubs need a long outing today from Jason Hammel and better offense down the line up.
