While the Chicago Cubs threatened to tie the NL Wild Card Game or more against the Colorado Rockies in the bottom of the seventh after loading the bases with two outs thanks to a catcher’s interference call, the Rockies eventually got out of that inning thanks to a strikeout from Adam Ottavino. In the bottom of the eighth, though, the Cubs actually managed to tie it up, and they did so thanks to another unusual set of circumstances. Ottavino got Ben Zobrist to ground out to start the inning and then struck out Kris Bryant, but Anthony Rizzo then singled to center. Manager Joe Maddon then made an unusual move, bringing in pinch runner Terrance Gore to replace Rizzo, and Gore, used almost exclusively as a base-stealer, lived up to that reputation by stealing second:
It’s notable that Gore (seen above celebrating his steal) has more career stolen base attempts than at-bats:
Terrance Gore now has 37 career stolen-base attempts and 19 career plate appearances. Stolen bases are fun.
— Tyler Kepner (@TylerKepner) October 3, 2018
And that his speed on this one was 31 feet per second, well above the standard of 30 for elite runners:
Terrance Gore's sprint speed on that Javy double was 31ft per second… Quite fast.
— Daren Willman (@darenw) October 3, 2018
And Baez promptly followed that up with a short hit to center that rolled out to deep-playing center fielder Justin Blackmon, easily scoring Gore and ending up as a double:
Bring ‘em home, Javy! #WildCard pic.twitter.com/5i5FwP8sAy
— MLB (@MLB) October 3, 2018
Of course, Rizzo might have scored from first on this double, although it probably would have been closer. And maybe taking Rizzo out for Gore will hurt the Cubs eventually, as this is now going to extra innings. But Gore’s steal certainly applied some extra pressure, and he certainly made coming home to tie the game look easy. We’ll see how this plays out in the end, but this was definitely a key moment in this game.
[Clippit]
