Cubs Fall 9-8 in 11-inning Sunday Night Thriller
SOUTH BEND, IN - An absolute barnburner took place on Sunday night as the Cubs fought back from a 5-0 deficit to send the series final to extras, but fell 9-8 in 11 innings. The game finished on a fielder’s choice grounder up the middle as South Bend had the
SOUTH BEND, IN - An absolute barnburner took place on Sunday night as the Cubs fought back from a 5-0 deficit to send the series final to extras, but fell 9-8 in 11 innings. The game finished on a fielder’s choice grounder up the middle as South Bend had the tying run aboard at second and the winning run on first.
The most critical play of the game took place in the top of the 11th as the game’s lone error would proved too much for the home team to overcome. With runners aboard at first and third, Dylan O’Rae hit a one hop grounder back to the mound. Carlo Reyes fielded it, looked around and every base and the with his feet pointing toward second, threw the ball flat-footed to first base. A brief panic caused the Cubs dearly as the throw bounced by the Cubs first baseman Felix Stevens and toward the bullpen. Two runs would score and O’Rae wound up at third. Jadher Arienamo brought him in with a sac-fly to make it a 9-6 lead.
Credit the Cubs though, who at one point trailed this game 5-0 in the 3rd inning. In the 11th Ethan Hearn belted a double off Edwin Jimenez to get some juice back into the dugout and the crowd. A Jordan Nwogu sac-fly to left brought the Cubs within a couple of runs. Parker Chavers followed with a walk and then a daring double steal put the Cubs in position with runners at second and third and just one out. Rafael Morel, who had brought South Bend within a run with a two-run homer in the seventh, worked an 8-pitch plate appearance that ended with a hit-by-pitch. With the bases now loaded Jimenez left the game after throwing ball one to Brett Bateman. An apparent arm injury seemed to cause the move to bring in Stiven Cruz. Bateman rifled one into right but right at Terence Doston. The fly-out brought home a run to make it 9-8. Then came the grounder off the bat of Pedro Ramirez that ended the game.
Offensively Brett Bateman (1-3, 2 R, RBI, 2 BB), Pedro Ramirez (2-6, R, RBI), Jefferson Rojas (1-5, 2 RBI), Parker Chavers (3-4, 2 R, BB), and Rafael Morel (1-4, HR, 2 RBI, R).
On the mound Tyler Schlaffer allowed five runs in 2.2 innings before the bullpen took over and went the final 8.1 innings allowing no earned runs, but four unearned ones. The Cubs bullpen has gone 18.1 innings straight innings without allowing an earned run.