The Cubs got a little help Saturday afternoon. From where, exactly, is debatable.
“Maybe Harry Caray helped us out . . . pushed the ball into that drain,” was Sammy Sosa’s explanation.
“Don’t ask anything . . . just go with the flow,” Rod Beck reasoned.
Colorado slugger Dante Bichette was in agreement with Sosa: Divine intervention by the late and beloved Cubs broadcaster Caray–as well as baseball’s rulebook–had something to do with the outcome.
These were reactions Saturday to the bizarre stroke of good fortune the Cubs received to beat the Colorado Rockies 3-2 before another standing-room-only crowd of 40,198 in the house of wonders known as Wrigley Field.
A yellow “1” already had been hoisted on the scoreboard in the top of the ninth for the Rockies, apparently tying the score 3-3, when Larry Walker raced from first to the plate on Bichette’s drive past a diving Sosa down the right-field line.
But Sosa stood in deep right field frantically raising both arms over his head.
The umpires searched for and found the ball, which had skipped past Sosa and rolled to the wall. The ball was wedged into a drain at the base of the wall. Umpires Paul Schreiber and Dana DeMuth ruled the play a ground-rule double, sending Walker back to third and the yellow “1” back inside the scoreboard.
Given a new life, Beck picked up his 15th save in his last 15 opportunities by getting Vinny Castilla to line the ball to deep right, where Sosa clutched it for the game’s final out.
“I guess you could say we were lucky,” said Sosa. “I was playing deep. I dived for the ball and–boom–I never saw it again. So I raised my arm for the umpires to see. That saved the game right there.”
No umpire judgment was involved. The ground rule says the batter gets to second base and all base runners advance only two bases.
“It’s a flaw in the rules,” Bichette said. “I feel bad for the game because of that rule. Nobody should lose on a play where the right-fielder misplays the ball and the offense gets penalized.
“Sammy did the smart thing. We were beaten by a rule, not the Cubs. By Harry Caray.”
“We got a break,” Beck said, “but I’ve seen crazy things happen in this ballpark.”
“We were very fortunate today,” Riggleman said. “There’s no leeway for judgment. It was called a ground-rule double. The rule sometimes can be unfair.”
Steve Trachsel (11-5) pitched seven innings for his fifth straight victory, the longest winning streak of his career. He has worked at least seven innings in his last six starts and compiled a 2.56 earned-run average over that time.
Between Trachsel’s seven innings and Beck’s ninth, manager Jim Riggleman called for Cubs debuts by the team’s two newest players: left-hander Felix Heredia, who was obtained in a trade late Friday night from the Marlins, and Matt Karchner, acquired in midweek from the White Sox.
Heredia faced only one batter, Todd Helton, who had previously homered and doubled. Heredia retired him on three pitches. Karchner faced three hitters, allowing a single to Mike Lansing and striking out pinch hitters Jeff Reed and Kurt Abbott.
