CHICAGO — The move was aggressive and brazen, and for a few moments, it seemed as if it might work. With Game 1 of the National League Championship Series on the line Saturday night, Los Angeles Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts asked reliever Joe Blanton to intentionally walk two Chicago Cubs batters.
The score was tied, and Blanton had been stellar for the Dodgers all year. And the walks forced Cubs closer Aroldis Chapman out of the game in favor of pinch-hitter Miguel Montero, who had not hit Blanton well in his career.
But the decision also loaded the bases with two outs and pushed the Dodgers dangerously close to the edge. With one powerful swing, Montero pushed them over.
After whiffing at the previous slider, Montero blasted a hanging two-strike slider from Blanton over the right-field fence for only the third pinch-hit grand slam in postseason history, powering the Cubs ahead on their way to an 8-4 victory.
Continue reading the main story“As a kid, you always dream of these situation,” said Montero, 33, who has been relegated to occasional pinch-hitting duties with three catchers on the Cubs roster. “And that’s what you live for.”
Montero’s homer capped a wild final two innings. The Cubs had gambled themselves, pulling starter Jon Lester after only 77 pitches and six solid innings. That decision by Cubs Manager Joe Maddon loomed large in the eighth, when the Cubs’ two-run lead withered away, capped by Adrian Gonzalez’s two-run game-tying single on a 102-mile-per-hour fastball from Chapman.
But those moments led to another thrilling finish, and the Cubs, hoping to break their 108-year World Series drought, emerged victorious over the pesky Dodgers in a game that featured Maddon and Roberts countering each other’s managerial tactics.
“It was a pretty well-managed game on both ends,” said Jason Heyward, one of the Cubs hitters walked intentionally by the Dodgers in the eighth. “What can you do? A two-strike pitch for a grand slam?”
The Dodgers were again plagued by another short outing from a starter. Kenta Maeda lasted only four innings. He walked three batters, including Lester twice. But the Cubs hit him hard, too.
The Cubs’ first run of the game came in the first inning when Dexter Fowler singled and Kris Bryant, a contender for the N.L. Most Valuable Player Award, then doubled to left field past Howie Kendrick.
The lead expanded to 3-0 an inning later thanks to the Cubs’ talent and aggressiveness. Heyward tripled into the right-field corner and scored easily when Javier Baez, who had tried to bunt earlier in the at-bat, lifted a pop fly to shallow center field.
The Dodgers had shifted their infield, and Baez recognized the possibility of taking an extra base. He ran hard out of the batter’s box and beat the throw into second base, pointed at the Cubs’ dugout and clapped his hands.
A wild pitch by Maeda sneaked past catcher Carlos Ruiz, and Baez advanced to third. On a safety squeeze, Lester squared around to bunt, and Baez took off for the plate. But Lester pulled the bat back when the pitch turned out to be a ball.
Ruiz caught the ball and, oddly, fired to third base. Third baseman Justin Turner jumped to save the ball from going into the outfield and quickly threw it back to Ruiz at home. Baez still beat the throw.
“One percent or less of all major league players would have done what he did,” Maddon said of Baez, adding later, “That’s purely good baseball instinct.”
Wrigley Field exploded with cheers. Fans chanted “Ja-vy, Ja-vy, Ja-vy!” With his audacious play, Baez became the first Cubs player to steal home in the postseason since 1907.
As the night dragged on, that proved to be only a footnote in a topsy-turvy game. The Dodgers managed to scored one run in the fifth inning when pinch-hitter Andre Ethier smacked an improbable home run against Lester, hitting what appeared to be a routine fly ball, but the wind carried the ball over the left-field wall.
While the Dodgers managed only four hits against Lester, they hit a handful of line drives right at Cubs defenders, and Fowler alone saved two hits. And Maddon did not want to take any chances. He removed his starter even though Lester had retired 12 of the last 13 batters he faced.
“I didn’t think he had his best stuff tonight,” Maddon said. “We had no choice.”
Added Lester: “I don’t get paid to make decisions; I get paid to pitch. That’s his decision, and obviously we got a lot of guys on the bench that can swing a bat better than I can.”
The decision hovered over the final two innings of the game, especially when the Cubs worked into a jam in the eighth inning and Maddon put Chapman in a difficult spot by bringing him in with the bases loaded with no outs.
Andrew Toles started the rally earlier in the inning with a pinch-hit single off Mike Montgomery. Chase Utley then drew a pinch-hit walk against Pedro Strop. Toles further fueled the rally when he raced to third base and beat a tag by Kris Bryant, who had snared Turner’s infield single.
Forced to turn to his best reliever, Maddon brought Chapman in for a six-out save. Chapman struck out Corey Seager and Yasiel Puig, and the plan nearly worked. But Gonzalez, who knew that Chapman was going to pump only fastballs, slapped one into center field to tie the game. He pumped his fists as he stood on first base.
That set the stage for the bottom of the eighth. Ben Zobrist smacked a leadoff double off Blanton, and Addison Russell grounded out. Roberts then asked Blanton to intentionally walk Heyward, who has struggled this postseason, to face the hot-hitting Baez. Blanton got Baez to pop out on the first pitch of the at-bat.
Roberts then tempted fate again. Blanton intentionally walked Chris Coghlan, which brought up Chapman’s spot in the order. Maddon sent Montero up to bat, and Roberts stuck with Blanton because of his track record.
“What’s the best way to win that game?” Roberts said of Chapman. “It’s to get him out of the game. So I felt that if we did that, then the game was ours.”
“I probably would have done the same thing he did,” Maddon added.
Roberts knew that if he brought in a left-handed reliever for Montero, Maddon would counter with a right-handed pinch-hitter, so he trusted Blanton. Blanton threw Montero three sliders. Montero swung and missed badly on the second.
“I was like, I want that slider back because it was such a good pitch to hit,” Montero said. “And I guess he heard me, because he threw it back, and luckily I hit the ball pretty good.”
After making contact, Montero tossed his bat and threw his arms in the air. In the on-deck circle, Fowler did the same. Wrigley Field shook from the crowd reaction.
“I thought the roof was coming down from the fans,” said Baez, never mind that the stadium does not have a roof. “I don’t think anybody saw Dexter Fowler’s home run.”
Fowler followed Montero’s home run with one of his own. And after the game, Cubs players said that they understood why Roberts had made the decisions he did. Roberts said he would “do the same thing over again. Ten times out of 10, I would take Joe Blanton against Montero, and he took a good swing on an 0-2 pitch. It’s going to happen. That’s baseball.”
“It’s smart,” Bryant said. “You get one of the best closers out of the game. But Miggy came up huge.”
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