Matt Shaw sparks Cubs’ walk-off win by using Michael Busch’s bat
On a warm summer night at Wrigley Field, the Cubs completed a three-game series sweep of the Cleveland Guardians thanks to Cubs third baseman Matt Shaw’s walk-off sac fly in the 10th inning.
Before Shaw’s final at-bat in the 10th inning, the game was still scoreless. Michael Busch led off the bottom half of the inning, grounding out to Guardians shortstop Daniel Schneemann, which moved Hoerner to third base.
The rookie third baseman stepped into the box to face Guardians star reliever Emmanuel Clase. On a 1-0 pitch, Shaw smoked a 99-mph cutter to right-center, deep enough for Hoerner to score on the game-winning run and complete the sweep of Cleveland.
“It’s a great read right off the bat. Obviously, Busch on the other side of things like being able to get him over, that’s huge,” Shaw said. “That changes that whole inning. If he’s at second base, we’re not here right now.”
[Cubs Takeaways: What we learned in walk-off win over Guardians]
During Shaw’s at-bat, there was something different when he went into the batters box. He was carrying a different bat than his previous plate appearances. That bat happened to be Busch’s.
When Shaw spoke to reporters in the clubhouse following the win, he explained the decision to go with Busch’s bat to spark the Cubs’ walk-off win.
“I was checking out some bats in the last two half innings. I just hit a couple of balls and my bat didn’t feel great. It felt a little soft, so I ended up borrowing Busch’s bat for that last at-bat,” Shaw said after Thursday’s walk-off win. “Before I was like, ‘Thank you so much for letting me borrow your bat. Like this is huge.’ So afterwards, it was great.”
The result proved to be a success as Shaw recorded his second walk-off of the season. His first career walk-off happened back on May 15 against the Colorado Rockies in a 4-3 win that also went to extra innings.
