The Cubs were down to their final out when Rafael Ortega doubled to right in the top of the 9th. Robinson Chirinos followed with a single to left to tie the game, just like everyone had scripted. And then Willson Contreras got his hands in on one to send it out down the line.
It was clearly so powerful it knocked out the Marquee feed momentarily:
WILLSON CONTRERAS WITH THE GO-AHEAD HOME RUN IN THE BOTTOM OF THE 9TH WITH 2 OUTS! 🤯🔥 pic.twitter.com/C0x4ZAinJE
— Cubs Zone ™️ (@CubsZone) July 17, 2021
Zac Gallen is a very good young pitcher, so he gets a lot of the credit for holding the Cubs’ bats down. They didn’t get anything cooking until his final inning of work when Willson Contreras, Anthony Rizzo, and Javy Báez went single, walk, double with one out in the sixth.
It was an interesting outing for Adbert Alzolay, who was clearly pitching to contact against the lefties (the inside cutter was back), and wasn’t getting much in the way of whiffs. Alzolay didn’t give up much in the way of hard contact – notably, no dingers today – but it’s hard to know how much of that was the product of him successfully executing a “weak contact” strategy, and how much was just the Diamondbacks having a really soft lineup.
Kudos to the Cubs’ bullpen for keeping the Diamondbacks at two to allow the Cubs to come back, and let Craig Kimbrel finish it out.
