MLB Rankings: Baseball’s Greatest Hits of Week-22
By Bill Felber
MLB Rankings: Greatest Hits in Week-22
7. Kyle Schwarber, 40 percent
It was an odd week for the Cubs, who all season long have been one of baseball’s best home teams and one of its worst road teams. The Cubs defied that trend by completing a three-game home series sweep at the hands of the Nationals Sunday, then going on the road and sweeping the Mets at Citi Field.
Schwarber nearly prevented that Nationals sweep at Wrigley on Sunday with his game-tying home run in the eighth inning.
Washington led 5-3 at the time thanks largely to a three-run seventh inning highlighted by Asdrubal Cabrera’s two-RBI base hit. Fernando Rodney took over on the mound in the eighth and retired both Nick Castellanos and Kris Bryant easily before walking Javier Baez.
Schwarber was the next batter. He worked the count to 2-0, looked for a heater, and got one he powered off the giant scoreboard behind the bleachers in left field. That shot tied the game 5-5.
Unfortunately for the Cubs, it was only enough to send the game into extra innings. In the 11th, Washington added two more runs off Tyler Chatwood and those two sealed a 7-5 victory completing the sweep.
It was only the second home series the Cubs had lost all season, and the first time they had been swept in a series of more than two games at home since Milwaukee did it in September of 2017.