A Season for the Ages by Al Yellon

Author:Al Yellon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2016-11-21T16:00:00+00:00

This time, the Cubs listened to Liz’s plea, but not before winning the first game of the set, 6–4. They got eight outstanding shutout innings from Jon Lester, who became the first Cubs left-hander to strike out 9 without a walk in consecutive starts during the modern era (since 1900). This game would have been a much easier win if Joe Maddon had let Lester, who’d thrown only 95 pitches, try to complete his shutout.

Instead, Justin Grimm, who didn’t really need the work (he’d appeared in two of the previous three games), entered with a 6–0 lead in the ninth. He threw eight pitches, and three of them went for Phillies hits, the last a three-run homer by Freddy Galvis. This sent Hector Rondon to warm up hurriedly. Perhaps Hector wasn’t properly warmed up, because his fourth pitch was launched into the seats by Tommy Joseph. Rondon did retire the next two batters and allowed a single, bringing Ryan Howard to the plate representing the tying run in a game that shouldn’t have gotten anywhere near that point.

You know, the old, bad Cubs would have served up a game-tying homer to Howard. But this wasn’t those old Cubs, and Ryan Howard was going through what was to be a bad and final season in Philadelphia. He hit the first pitch on the ground to Anthony Rizzo to end the game.

More important in this one was yet another hamstring injury to Jorge Soler. In the third inning, Soler singled with one out and appeared to tweak his hammy rounding first base. This is something that plagued him throughout his minor-league career, and he missed some time in 2015 with a similar injury. At first, the injury was ruled “day-to-day,” but Soler would not return for two months. He had just started to get hot right before this, too, after a horrific start to his 2016 season. Hitting just .184 on May 18, Soler hit .302/.423/.581 in 16 games before this injury with three home runs.

The Cubs had to play the entire season without Kyle Schwarber and were able to use their depth to fill the hole in the lineup. Could they do the same without Soler?

The injury sent the team scrambling. They probably hadn’t intended to call up Albert Almora Jr. this early, but since they needed a right-handed outfield bat, Almora joined the ball club. And two days later, Chris Coghlan, who’d been shipped to Oakland when Dexter Fowler re-signed, was reacquired from the A’s for Arismendy Alcantara. Coghlan was the worst everyday player in the American League at the time of his return to the Cubs—he was hitting .146/.215/.272 in 172 plate appearances, but with five home runs. To make room for Coghlan on the 25-man roster, Tommy La Stella hit the DL with a hamstring strain. (Those aren’t contagious; it just seemed so.)

A couple of months after his return, when the Cubs were playing in Oakland, Coghlan told the Tribune: “I’m so grateful I’m here. And it makes

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