Heim's redemption caps wild win for Rangers
Catcher Jonah Heim was the goat-turned-hero for Texas in its season-opening win over the Cubs on Thursday. The Texas Rangers won 4-3 against the Chicago Cubs on the night they unveiled their championship banner. The game was marked by several notable moments, including a walk-off single from catcher Jonah Heim in the bottom of the 10th inning. Heim, a central figure in the team's dramatic run to its first championship last fall, was the star of the night. The win came after a bizarre sequence where Heim misled a foul ball in the ninth, leading to an errant throw to the team and an error that allowed Nico Hoerner to advance to third. Despite these errors, Heim insists he takes full responsibility for the error.
Publié : il y a 4 semaines par Bradford Doolittle dans Sports
Jonah Heim rips a walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th inning as the Rangers win on the night they unveiled their championship banner. (0:44)
ARLINGTON, Texas -- At the end of an opening game so stuffed with gleaming storylines that Stephen King wouldn't know which one to choose, it was the redemption story that won out.
The goat-turned-hero in the Texas Rangers' 4-3, extra-inning win was catcher Jonah Heim, a central figure during the team's dramatic run to its first championship last fall, the World Series win commemorated before Thursday's game during a ceremony in which the championship banner was unfurled.
For more than eight innings and nearly three hours against the Chicago Cubs, Heim was not even a sidebar in a season opener that had a little of everything. By the end of the night, he was the guy everybody wanted to talk to.
Heim's 10th-inning, two-out, bases-loaded single into the gap in right-center field off Drew Smyly ended the back-and-forth contest. That in itself would have made him the star of the night. But it was a bizarre sequence with Heim at the center in the top of the ninth that made his heroics that much sweeter.
"It felt great," Heim said. "When you can win a game in the big leagues, it's a good day. When you feel like you kind of let the team down and get an opportunity to win the game, it's even better."
With the game knotted at two, the Cubs had Michael Busch on second and Nico Hoerner on first with two outs. Both players had reached base when Texas closer Jose Leclerc issued back-to-back, two-out walks.
Chicago, piloted by new skipper Craig Counsell, sent pinch hitter Miles Mastrobuoni to the plate. Mastrobuoni swung at an 0-1 Leclerc changeup well below the strike zone. The ball skittered away from Heim, who thought the pitch had made contact with the bat. He lobbied plate umpire Chad Fairchild for a foul ball that was not forthcoming.
While Heim was engaged with Fairchild, Busch saw that Heim had not retrieved the ball, which lay about 15 feet away, and scored all the way from second on what was scored as a wild pitch. Heim then compounded the mistake with an errant throw to Leclerc, an error that allowed Hoerner to advance to third.
It was not a sequence becoming of Heim, one of baseball's top defensive backstops.
"You have to finish the play, and we just talked about it," Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. "Jonah said, 'That's on me,' but the big thing is he put it behind him and got that big hit."
The Cubs had a 3-2 lead headed to the bottom of the ninth and their closer, Adbert Alzolay, on for the save opportunity. Bochy countered with a pinch hitter of his own, sending Travis Jankowski, whose postseason exploits last year made the mullet-wearing outfielder something of a Texas folk hero, to the plate.
Jankowski, who entered the game with 10 career homers over 577 games dating back nine seasons with six different teams, of course homered to tie the game.
The stage was set for Heim to redeem himself after the Cubs left the bases loaded in the top of the 10th. With two down and the bases jammed, Heim mashed a Smyly sinker 103 miles per hour into the gap, setting off a celebration in the middle of the field not unlike the one the Rangers enjoyed after their last win, the World Series clincher at Arizona.
"A lot of emotions, obviously," Heim said. "What happened can't happen, and I take full responsibility for that. Thankfully Travis picked me up there, had my back. A lot of great at-bats in the 10th gave me the opportunity, and I just tried to put something in play."
Before Heim's dramas emerged, the game was full of highlight moments. Both starting pitchers, Texas' Nathan Eovaldi and Chicago's Justin Steele, were sharp but Steele had to leave in the fifth after suffering a hamstring strain that has him headed for the IL. Adolis Garcia mashed a tying homer in the sixth and punctuated it with a signature bat flip. Hyped rookie Wyatt Langford had his first hit, first RBI and was even intentionally walked in his big league debut.
"It was great," Langford said. "I don't think I could have asked for a better first game."
Entering the game, it seemed like the night was all about the banner. Exiting the game, it reminded everyone that the journey leading to the next banner is going to be pretty fun as well. Thursday was just game No. 1 of 162. The first one, on a night when so much happened, belonged to Heim.
"It's amazing," Jankowski said. "That was kind of our motto last year. Bad break for Jonah there, but he goes and walks it off and wins it. That's a team that doesn't hang its head."
Les sujets: Baseball, MLB, Texas Rangers, New York Rangers, Chicago Cubs