Joe Maddon runs out of players, puts three pitchers in left field
Long baseball games can get weird. When a baseball games enters innings in the teens, you can almost always bet on seeing something very strange. Tuesday night’s marathon game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Chicago Cubs did not disappoint; it lasted 15 innings, and Cubs manager Joe Maddon provided a big dose of innovative weirdness.
One of the things that makes long games so tough, especially in the DH-free National League, is having enough guys on the bench to finish out the game. Both the Cubs and the Reds had used up their entire benches by the end of the 13th inning, and that’s when Maddon got really creative. Over two innings, he used three different pitchers in left field, switching two of them back and forth between left field and the mound.
Let’s break this down. In the bottom of the 14th inning, Spencer Patton came on to pitch. He faced Brandon Phillips, who flied out. Then Maddon moved Patton to left field and Travis Wood replaced him on the mound. Wood then pitched to Jay Bruce, who grounded out. Then, Wood and Patton switched places: Wood went to left field, and Patton came back to the mound to pitch. Patton got Adam Duvall for the third out, and the inning was over.
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Maddon’s strategy was certainly creative, but definitely not sustainable. Thankfully, Maddon wouldn’t have to try it much longer. Kris Bryant and Javier Baez secured the lead for the Cubs in the 15th, hitting a single and a grand slam (respectively), putting them up 7-2. If Maddon and the Cubs could hold on to the lead for half an inning, the game would be over.
In the bottom of the 15th inning, Maddon sent reliever Pedro Strop into left field, and put Wood back on the mound. This time, there was no complicated maneuvering. Wood stayed on the mound the entire inning, faced four batters, and got the final three outs to protect the lead and end the game. After 15 innings and some unconventional left fielders, the Cubs had won the marathon.
Maddon let everyone in on his thought process when he spoke with MLB.com’s Cody Pace after the game.
“We were naked, we were so naked,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “Here’s the thing, you do stuff like that, when I went out to [put reliever Travis Wood in left field] originally, the infielders were kind of giggling, they kind of liked it. So when you get into a game like that that’s really stressful, everybody’s trying so hard, everybody wants to win. It’s, in a perverse way, to lighten the mood a little bit and so they all kind of dug that.”
Leave it to Joe Maddon, who brought joy and fun (and even bear cubs) to Cubs spring training, to find a wacky and entertaining way to win a long, tough game.
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Liz Roscher is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at lizroscher@yahoo.com or follow her on twitter! Follow @lizroscher
