A hustle play, Cubs manager Jim Riggleman called it without regret or a wink, hardly the adjective others might have chosen. Amusing, certainly it was all of that. The baseball bounced around like a lottery pellet.
Costly, sure, but only in the sense of a baseball game being lost. Fatal? Depends on how it fits whatever happens down other and less cluttered roads the Cubs must still travel this season. Let’s see if we can storyboard the thing.
It is the bottom of the 11th inning, at least three innings beyond the patience of “the best fans in baseball,” if the top of the Cleveland Indians’ dugout is to be believed. Jacobs Field is half-empty, after starting full. The place looks like it has received a bomb scare, which it has if you count Sammy Sosa’s advance publicity.
Still, Sosa’s last two at-bats are not important enough to keep folks in their very comfortable seats, not to mention a rally from three runs down to eventual victory for the home side.
If the Cubs ever get as consistently reliable as the Indians, maybe June games against glamor opponents will be routine, but I’m guessing it will take more than four division titles in a row and two failed World Series to have Cub fans kissing off glorious days and exciting games like this.
Where was I? Oh, yes. The 11th inning. Let’s follow the bouncing ball. Here it goes out of the hand of Cubs pitcher Scott Sanders, off the bat of Cleveland’s Robby Alomar, off Cubs first baseman Mark Gra ce’s chest, into Grace’s hand, over toward and through Sanders covering first base. Sanders then recovers and flings the thing without a compass toward Mickey Morandini. It sails beyond him and eventually ends up in the tardy but secure glove of Cubs third baseman Gary Gaetti.
Two errors are charged to Sanders, making it five for the Cubs on the day. Alomar is on third base and will score the game-winning run after two intentional walks load the bases and Wil Cordero whacks a ball down the left-field line.
Whew.
What makes this even more fascinating is that the ball goes through an infield that has been loaded with an extra Cubs glove. How often do you see five infielders outside of a mixed-gender softball game?
“I’ll never fault a player for trying to make a play,” Riggleman said. “I’ll take aggressive errors over errors of apathy.”
Apathy, exactly. What could possibly be the attractions of Cleveland or Greater Cuyahoga County to cause anyone to bail out on such a game? I mean, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame would need a reunion of the Beatles, including John Lennon.
This is a baseball game that has more game than baseball. Glenallen Hill strikes out for the Cubs because his bat breaks on a checked swing. How often does that happen?
“Glen’s a pretty strong guy,” Riggleman said.
The Cubs send 10 batters against the refurbished Doc Gooden in the first inning and get only four runs, the minimum, allowing Gooden to labor on for another five innings. Cleveland’s David Justice hits a ball 456 feet for a home run. Hill hits another a mere 360, and yet they count the same.
And here’s a call at home plate on a play that probably never should have been made when Sosa, with a three-run lead and more confidence than good sense, throws out Manny Ramirez, who probably shouldn’t have tried to score either.
Except umpire Gary Cederstrom doesn’t see Santiago hold the ball clearly and cleanly and calls Ramirez safe when Santiago tumbles, tries to come up throwing and loses the ball.
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“A (terrible) call,” Grace said.
But nonetheless official.
“Sammy got me the ball in time,” Santiago said. “It was a hard collision. I tagged him with the ball in my glove and switched it to my hand in case I needed to throw. He’s out all the way. A very bad call. It cost us the game right there.”
No, it didn’t. What cost the Cubs the game was the only familiar and routine thing that happened all day. The closer couldn’t close.
“I cost us the game,” relief pitcher Rick Aguilera said, showing a clear grasp of the obvious.
Twice Aguilera was a pitch from ending the game for the Cubs in the ninth inning. Sanders finished the game, and Terry Adams finished the two games before that. Aguilera may be paid to be the guy, but clearly he is not the guy.
“No one is the guy,” Riggleman said. “I’m just trying to get outs and I’ll go with my best option.”
It is inconceivable that the Cubs will continue to contend without a reliable closer, and this is how unreliable Aguilera has been so far. In spite of giving up the runs that sent the game into extra innings, his earned-run average dropped from 14.54 to 12.51.
Any game when you can knock two runs off your ERA has to be considered a step forward.