Morel's walk-off blast sends Wrigley into a frenzy |
CHICAGO - There are some games that you look back on and think this could be a season-changing type of win. Tonight was that night for the Chicago Cubs (62-58), as this could single-handedly go down as a season-changing win against the crosstown Rival, the Chicago White Sox (48-73).
After Mike Clevinger silenced the Cubs through seven innings, things looked bleak as the White Sox would load the bases in the top of the eighth with no outs. In danger of falling even further behind, Michael Fulmer came into the game and took care of business and did so in the most dominating way possible as he struck out all three hitters he faced to avoid any damage. Baseball is clearly a game of momentum, and the momentum swung instantly after the inning, with Nick Madrigal picking up a pinch-hit homer in the bottom of the eighth to make things 3-1 before the real excitement took place in the ninth. After a gift double to Cody Bellinger, Dansby Swanson showed great patience and worked a walk from Gregory Santos to bring the winning run to the plate in the form of Christopher Morel. Despite falling behind 0-2 in the count, Morel didn't change his approach and drove a liner over the right field fence to lift the Cubs to a massive 4-3 victory and sent Wrigley Field into a Frenzy. Considering the news the Cubs received about Marcus Stroman earlier in the day, they needed some enjoyment, and the pure joy on Morel's face was all you needed to see. With the Cubs rotation in flux for the better part of the past few weeks, Javier Assad has stepped up and stepped up in a huge way. After dominating the Blue Jays last time out, Assad was back at it again, giving the Cubs six strong innings for another quality start. Assad would allow three runs but only two earned runs on four hits while striking out four. You could say he has saved the Cubs rotation for now, as he will have a massive role going forward. Despite his outing, Clevinger stole the show as he put forth what could have been his best outing of the season. Not only did he give the White Sox seven innings, but it was seven shutout innings as he struck out seven and scattered just three hits before coming out of the game. The only trouble Clevinger found himself in came in the first inning when Mike Tauchman walked to lead things off before Nico Hoerner was hit by a pitch. The Cubs could not do anything with that, and it looked like that would come back to haunt them later on. Assad, on the other hand, couldn't have asked for a better start as he opened things by retiring the first 10 hitters he faced. That streak ended on the Andrew Benintendi single, while the Luis Robert Jr single put runners on the corners with one out. A few pitches later, the Sox grabbed a 1-0 lead as Assad uncorked a wild pitch to bring home that run. Immediately following that run, Ian Happ and Cody Bellinger opened up the bottom of the fourth with a pair of singles before the walk to Jeimer Candelario loaded the bases with two outs. Once again, Clevinger kept the Cubs off the board as they maintained their 1-0 lead. However, the same can't be said about Assad, as he would walk Andrew Vaughn to start the fifth before Gavin Sheets unloaded for a two-run shot to push the lead to 3-0. Those would be the final runs of the night for the Sox and their offense, as it was up to the Cubs pen to keep things close. Mark Leiter Jr obliged by that as he tossed a scoreless seventh, but with Clevinger still tossing zeros through seven, it didn't seem to matter how good the Cubs pitching was. The eighth inning could go down as the inning that changed the Cubs entire season as Jose Cuas came on to pitch for David Ross and had his worst outing since joining the Cubs. Cuas allowed Oscar Colas to open the top half of the eighth before a walk of walks loaded the bases with no outs and had things on the verge of a massive inning. In came Fulmer to not only put out the fire but downright extinguish it as he struck out all three hitters he faced to keep the score at 3-0. The sheer emotion from his outing ignited what was a quiet Cubs crowd, but that all changed in the bottom of the eighth. Looking for a spark on offense, Ross went to his bench and called on Madrigal to face Aaron Bummer as a pinch hitter. Madrigal not only delivered but delivered in a colossal manner as he put one into the left-field basket to put the Cubs on the board. Nick Madrigal - Chicago Cubs (2)
Hoerner would work a walk later in the frame only to have Happ ground into an inning-ending double play to end the frame. A scoreless ninth from Drew Smyly followed up the eighth inning as Happ picked up another outfield assist to nail Elvis Andrus trying to stretch a single into a double to end the frame. Down to their final three outs, it was up to the middle of the Cubs order to come through as they were looking to solve Gregory Santos. After dominating the Cubs on Tuesday, Santos had a rough go of things in this one as Bellinger led off the night with a seeing-eye double before the Swanson walk brought the winning run to the plate. Facing an 0-2 count, Morel stayed focused and put one of his best swings on a Santos fastball to drive it over the right field wall and delivered an improbable walk-off three-run shot to give the Cubs a 4-3 win and clinched the Crosstown Cup for the Northsiders. “What a great swing, great environment,” manager David Ross said after the game. “Christopher Morel, he’s just so electric. That ball’s smoked. A line drive to get over the basket like that, that exit velocity — I haven’t even seen it all. Crazy, crazy swing.” The Chicago Cubs are very much back and baseball is better because of it
Morel picked a great time to break out of a 3-38 slump as he picked up two of the team's six hits along with Bellinger. Happ and Madrigal added the other two hits in the victory. This win, mixed with a Brewers loss, puts the Cubs back into the third wild-card spot and just 2.5 games out of first in the NL Central. Chicago will now enjoy an off day before welcoming the lowly Kansas City Royals to town this weekend.
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