Joc Pederson’s Boner Leads to Christopher Morel’s Dong
The sign of a good team is one that takes advantage of their opponents mistakes and the Cubs certainly did that Tuesday night, as Joc Pederson’s boner in left field led to four runs in the seventh inning, including Christopher Morel’s three-run dong.
How can you not love the Cubs offense nowadays? During Tuesday’s 11-8 win over the San Francisco Giants, the Cubs erased two multi-run deficits to come back and earn their third victory in a row.
Seiya Suzuki had already tied the game at six, with a booming, two-run homer off Tyler Rogers in the seventh, but the flood gates broke open after a Jeimer Candelario fly ball dropped behind Pederson in left field. Looks like Pederson either lost the ball in the lights or the wind pushed the ball farther out than he thought because this was as routine as it gets.
Yan Gomes followed with an infield single and with runners at the corners and only one out, Nick Madrigal reached safely on an infielder’s choice, as Giants third baseman Casey Schmitt could not deliver a good enough throw to home that allowed Candelario to score the go-ahead run.
But it was Morel, who really made the Giants pay. Morel didn’t start on Tuesday, but he came in to pinch-hit in the third inning. He had been 0-for-2, but on a 1-2 pitch, he crushed a three-run homer to dead center field that put the Cubs up 10-6.
This was Morel’s 20th home run of the season.
Oh baby, hang it in the Louvre!
Another angle because they’re all awesome.
Incredible effort from the Cubs, who were down 3-0 heading into the third inning and then down again 6-4 to start the seventh. Despite the historically bad numbers with runners in scoring position through May, there is no arguing that the Cubs have had one of the best offenses in baseball in 2023.
Including Tuesday’s slate of games, the Cubs rank 6th in MLB with 708 runs scored. That also ranks 3rd best in the National League behind the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers, the two highest scoring teams in all of baseball.
Seiya Suzuki on Fire
Seiya Suzuki was benched for about a week in early August and since then the right fielder has been a force in the middle of the Cubs lineup. Not only that, he’s been one of the best hitters in baseball for the past month.
Here’s what Suzuki had done in his previous 25 games heading into Tuesday night’s contest against the Giants.
Awesome. And then all Suzuki did in the second game of this weekday series against the Giants was go 4-for-5, with a game-tying home run, a double, two singles, which included an insurance RBI in the eighth inning.
Among all right fielders, Suzuki now ranks 10th in MLB with a 118 wRC+. His season slash line is up to .273/.344/.463, with 16 home runs in 116 games.
What an incredible turnaround for Suzuki, who ended July with a .713 OPS. That’s now up to .807 after his four-hit performance on Tuesday.