Sticky situation
Columnist says the Cubs, who capitalized on a fluke play for a win, might have fate with them again,
ST. The Chicago Cubs LOUIS were in a sticky mess Thursday afternoon, but one of the most bizarre plays you’ll ever see, one that no one on the field had ever witnessed, completely changed their destiny.
And you thought last year was a magical year for the Cubs?
The Cubs, with the help of pine tar, rosin, spray or whatever else that could have been smeared on St. Louis Cardinals’ All- Star catcher Yadier Molina’s chest protector, reversed their fate into a 6-4 victory on Kyle Schwarber’s dramatic three-run homer at Busch Stadium.
All because Molina couldn’t find a baseball, that was actually stuck to him in the middle of his chest. Really. “I’ve never seen anything like that before in my life,” Cubs catcher Miguel Montero said. “That was unbelievable. That was crazy. I was like, ‘ What just happened there? Who’s got the pine tar?’ “You kidding me?” The Cardinals were leading 4-2 in the seventh inning when it happened. Cardinals left-handed reliever Brett Cecil struck out pinch-hitter Matt Szczur on a curveball in the dirt leading off the inning.
It bounced up, hit Molina in the chest, and Szczur started running to first base.
Molina looked to his left for the ball, yanked off his catcher’s mask, did a complete 360 desperately looking around but still couldn’t find it. Szczur reached first, and finally Molina noticed the ball was stuck to the middle of his chest.
He looked at home-plate umpire Quinn Wolcott. Wolcott looked at him. He broke into a grin and looked over to Cubs right fielder Jason Heyward, his former teammate.
“We had a saying for it when I was over there,” said Heyward, who played in 2015 with the Cardinals. “‘Never seen it.’ We had a sign for it. It was hilarious. We joked about it the next time I came to the plate.
“You think you’ve seen it all, and baseball shows you haven’t seen it all.”
Yes, Schwarber taught us that lesson last year. Schwarber, who missed all but the first three games of the regular season last year, only to return to be activated just in time to lead the Cubs to their first World Series title in 108 years, was again at the epicenter of the improbable.
Cecil, perhaps unnerved after the zany play, walked No. 9 hitter Jon Jay, bringing up Schwarber. It’s rather unconventional having a slugger such as Schwarber as your leadoff hitter, so he didn’t act like one, swinging at the first pitch and sending a 91-mph cut fastball into the right-field seats at 112 mph.
It was the hardest hit ball he has ever had off a lefty, according to MLB’s Statcast. Then again, this is Schwarber. Why should anything he does surprise us?
Considering he was the first player in baseball history to produce his first hit of the season in the World Series, maybe he can take the rest of the season off and rest up for the postseason.
No wonder why those fun-loving Cubs toasted Schwarber in their raucous celebration after the game.
“I made it past the third game today,” Schwarber said, laughing. “So everybody went crazy.”
The ball won’t be preserved in Cubs’ folklore like his homer that landed atop the right-field scoreboard in their 2015 playoffs against the Cardinals, but, oh, how that sticky ball could be remembered all season.
“I don’t know if they came out with Velcro in the protector or just a fuzzy baseball,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “I’m not sure what happened. It was definitely Velcro-ed to his chest.”
Certainly, the Cubs weren’t making an issue of any foreign substance, dismissing it since virtually every catcher puts pine tar on his shin guards, hoping not to get caught smearing it on a baseball thrown back to his pitchers.
“Catchers like to put pine tar on their shin guards,” Schwarber says, “and throw balls to second base and get good feeling. Maybe it rubbed off on him and it stuck. You never know. That’s my theory.
“Whatever. It was a crazy play. First time I’ve ever seen that.”
Cubs pitcher John Lackey, a veteran of 15 years, said he had never seen anything like it and wasn’t about to offer his theory, either.
“You have to ask somebody else,” he said, grinning. “I wouldn’t know anything about sticky stuff.”
Ah, nothing like good old-fashioned fun at the ball yard, only for the Cardinals to pass on any humor, losing the opening series to the Cubs in a season in which they’re hoping to at least stay in Chicago’s rearview mirror.
“I don’t know how that happened,” Molina said. “But that play changed everything. If we get that first out, everything changes.”
When asked if he had applied anything to help his grip, that smile turned into a grimace.
“Do I put anything on my chest protector?” Molina said. “That’s a dumb question.”
Well, of course, no worse than someone asking whether the Cubs can possibly be stopped by anybody in the National League Central.
This is a Cubs party that’s just getting started.