MIAMI – Not all games – or even close contests – can be thrillers.
In the Cubs’ 2-1 victory against the Marlins on Wednesday, their eighth-inning go-ahead run was anything but dramatic, playing out in front of the sparse stands at loanDepot Park. Cubs rookie Matt Shaw watched Kyle Tucker’s single bounce under Marlins left fielder Kyle Stowers’ glove, restarted his momentum toward home plate, and scored easily on the error.
It was the difference in the game, which clinched the three-game series for the Cubs.
At the end of the year, when the team’s fighting for playoff position, these kinds of games – maybe not the prettiest, or even against good competition – can be the difference in securing a playoff berth, or home-field advantage, or a first-round bye.
The Cubs found a way to win regardless, and they needed contributions from their top two prospects, Shaw and starting pitcher Cade Horton, to do so.
“It was a great day for him,” Shaw said of Horton, who held the Marlins to one run through 5 ⅓ innings. “In a similar situation [to me,] where he’s building his confidence every day he gets out there. So it’s exciting to be able to do it together, to be really good friends and to just experience everything together.”
Wednesday marked Horton’s third major-league outing and his best so far.
He navigated traffic in the first inning, as ground balls, a line drive single and a walk added up. But he kept the damage to a minimum. The only run scored on a sharp ground ball to Shaw’s left with two outs.
Shaw made a deft pick to his forehand side, but he couldn’t quite complete the play, his throw pulling first baseman Michael Busch off the base on what was ruled an RBI single.
“Nothing that bad was happening; we were getting our glove on a lot of balls, and just couldn’t convert outs,” manager Craig Counsell said. “But [Horton] just kept making pitches. And I thought he got strong as the game went and got confident as the game went on.”
Horton showed confidence in his changeup in particular, throwing it 18 times, according to Statcast. He’d only thrown six changeups in his previous two starts combined.
“I had a good feeling for it, and so I just started relying on it,” Horton said. “Some days are going to be like that. Not swinging much at the slider, and so you’ve got to find another pitch to get them out on. And so it came up huge for me.”
The Marlins swung at 11 changeups from Horton, whiffed on nine of them, and grounded out on the other two.
Horton didn’t have much margin for error to work with. Tucker’s first-inning solo homer – his second blast in as many days — was the only run the Cubs scored with Horton still in the game.
Shaw had the Cubs’ only other extra-base hit in the first eight innings. After an opposite-field line out in his first at-bat, Shaw bounced an automatic double over the right-field fence in the fifth inning. It was his third such hit since being recalled from Triple-A on Monday.
“That’s Matt Shaw,” Counsell said. “We didn’t see an extra base hit to the opposite field the first three weeks. Now, we’ve seen three already. That’s what you expect Matt to do, it’s what Matt’s good at doing. So you know he’s just in a better place from that result.”
Shaw’s most impactful at-bat Wednesday ended up being a four-pitch walk to lead off the eighth inning. He then stole second, putting himself in position to score the winning run when Stowers misplayed Tucker’s short line drive into left field.