It ended Sunday night when a pitcher, pinch-hitting for another pitcher, put down a flawless safety squeeze bunt in the 12th inning that closed out a stunning prime-time collapse by the Mariners.
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Seattle Mariners relief pitcher Steve Cishek (31) throws against the Chicago Cubs during the ninth inning of an interleague baseball game, Saturday, July 30, 2016, in Chicago.
“I’m looking at [Leonys] Martin, [Robinson] Cano, [Nelson] Cruz, [Kyle] Seager”, Maddon said. “He clearly deadened it”.
Smyly (3-11) gave up two runs and four hits in six innings, and Alex Colome worked the ninth to get his 24th save. It’s not very likely that he would come to Camden Yards and have that problem see much improvement. Jason Heyward, who opened the inning with a double, raced across to score the winning run.
But make no mistake.
“We are glad that Wade can go from one team in playoff contention to another, and to a division that he has had success in during his career”, general manager Jerry Dipoto said in an email. “It’s disappointing. I thought we had the game in hand. But if they don’t, I feel like we’re in a good place”.
“It didn’t happen. You have to finish”.
So when manager Joe Maddon found himself in precisely the pressure situation Chapman was acquired for, the decision to use him for a four-out save Saturday against the Mariners appeared to be a no-brainer.
Matusz was called up from Class AAA Iowa to give the Cubs’ starting rotation an extra day of rest, but he made his bullpen work overtime, pitching just three innings and leaving the crowd of 40,952 booing or severely mispronouncing his name over and over in an angry tone. Miley held the Cubs to one run on one hit in seven innings and struck out nine batters in the process.
Dexter Fowler, who had walked and gone to second on the Cubs’ first hit of the game, a Kris Bryant single, had then advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt. The news comes as a result of the team speaking out saying that they will be holding onto pitchers Taijan Walker and James Paxton as the only continue to rise from their current positions.
“I lost my command in the fifth”, he said. So let’s hope he got all the bad stuff out of the way in facing Martin and Robinson Cano, who he eventually struck out to end the inning. Tim Beckman made it 6-2 on a two-run shot in the seventh.
MILWAUKEE – Matt Garza allowed just one earned run in five innings and Milwaukee relievers pitched four hitless innings to stop Pittsburgh. Then Diaz did what Diaz does.
Arrieta faced 26 hitters, giving up only the two runs scoring on Chapman after he departed the game. He gave up a double to Anthony Rizzo and a single to Ben Zobrist to put runners on the corners. Anotherrun scored when Hernandez hit Addison Russell. Chapman’s disastrous outing won’t show up in the box score in the saves column, but consider donating to a local anti-DV organization regardless. The play at first was bang-bang, bit Contreras beat the relay.
The Mariners settled for one out, and the Cubs had runners at first and third.
With the tying run on third, Cishek yanked a 0-2 slider across his body, throwing it through the left-handed hitter batter’s box.
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Mike Zunino and Shawn O’Malley drew leadoff walks off Arrieta to force him out of the game.
