Cubs 1992 Season-Game 100
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Cubs 6, Pirates 4
- WP: Paul Assenmacher (3-2)
- LP: Stan Belinda (5-3)
July 29th, 1992
Wrigley Field
The Cubs had stumbled their way to a 46-51 record by the time this late-July series with the two-time defending Eastern Division winning Pirates had rolled into town for three games. The Cubs had won the first game, a pitchers duel between fellow aces Greg Maddux and Doug Drabek. The Cubs blew out Pittsburgh in Game 2, and would complete the sweep in this game, prompting an overexuberant fanbase to envision a pennant-chasing run.
Pittsburgh Determined To Avoid Sweep
There was a stark contrast in age between the day's starting pitchers. The Cubs' Frank Castillo, a twenty-two year old pitching in his first full major-league season, was squaring off against the 35 year old Bob Walk, who had made his debut in 1980.
The Pirates jumped on Castillo early, scoring one run in the second inning on a Barry Bonds homerun, and three in the third. The Cubs, meanwhile challenged Walk early, but stranded runners in each of the first two innings, including a bases-loaded situation in the 2nd.
At the end of 3 innings, Pittsburgh led 4-0 and had chased Castillo from the game.
The Cubs got on the board in the bottom of the fourth when catcher Rick Wilkins homered off of Walk with two outs to make the score 4-1. With Castillo having been pulled from the game after three innings, it was up to the Cubs' bullpen to keep the team in the game while the offense battled back, and they delivered. Ken Patterson and Chuck McElroy each threw two scoreless innings to keep Pittsburgh at four runs after 6 1/2 innings. Then, in the Cubs half of the seventh inning, Rey Sanchez led off with a double. The next batter Dwight Smith singled, scoring Sanchez. Smith's single marked the end of the day for Walk, who was replaced with Roger Mason. Mason proceeded to throw a wild pitch, and Smith took second. After Sammy Sosa struck out, Ryne Sandberg stepped up and tied the game by hitting a two-run homerun off of Mason. The game was tied at 4-4.
New Ballgame: 4-4
Jeff Robinson who had recorded his first, and only save of the season two nights earlier by taking down the Pirates 1-2-3, relieved McElroy and retired Pittsburgh in order in the eighth and ninth innings, meaning that in the series, Robinson had retired all twelve Pittsburgh hitters he faced. Meanwhile, the Cubs stranded a runner on second base in both the eighth and ninth innings.
Extra Innings
Paul Assenmacher relieved Robinson and also went 1-2-3 in the 10th inning. The Cubs failed to score in the home half of the 10th inning, and the score remained 4-4 heading into the 11th.
Assenmacher took the mound in the 11th and again retired Pittsburgh 1-2-3. At this point, 19 of the previous 20 Pittsburgh hitters had been retired going all the way back to the 5th inning.
Pittsburgh closer Stan Belinda, in his third inning of work, struck out Rey Sanchez to lead off the Cub half of the 11th. Belinda then inexblicably walked Assenmacher, who was batting for himself. To the plate stepped Sosa, who had kicked off the series for the Cubs in the first inning of Game 1 two days earlier by homering off of Drabek. Against Belinda, Sosa sent a pitch out of the park on to Waveland Avenue, to win the game 6-4, and sweep the series.
Postscript
Jubilation rained down in Wrigleyville. The big, bad Pirates, the two-time reigning champs of the NL East, had been sent out of town licking their wounds. The Cubs had appeared to have woken up. The feeling in the air was similar to 1989 and 1984, two years in which the Cubs had gone on to win the NL East. Chicago's first all-sports radio station--820 AM, The Score-- which had gone on the air just six months earlier, was able to amplify the enthusiasm with their more constant coverage.
The next day, newspaper readers all around Chicago opened their Chicago Tribunes to Page 3, where one of the most knowledgeable Cub fan around, legendary columnist Mike Royko, sobered up Cub Nation by admonishing them over their exuberance. Royko acidly pointed out to his fellow fans and fellow media members that the Cubs were merely 49-51, not even a .500 ballclub. Royko's central point was that, in the rush to enjoy the same feel-good vibes that fans had experienced in '84 and '89, that everyone had instead lowered their standards so that they could get goofy about a team that, while having strung together a nice short streak, was still an underacheiving club.
Royko would prove correct in his buzzkilling article, as the Cubs went on the road after sweeping Pittsburgh and reverted to their mediocre, uninspiring play, losing four of six games on a swing to New York and Montreal. Although they came back home and won four in a row, finally reaching the .500 mark for the first time since April 12th, they never were able to find sustained success. They continued to dance above and below .500 through August and early September, but never got to within the 3 1/2 games of Pittsburgh that they were at the end of this game.
Trivia & Miscellany
Pittsburgh starter Walk was a rookie for the 1980 World Champion Philadelphia Phillies, a team managed by former Cubs General Manager Dallas Green. Green, in fact, began the World Series by having his twenty-three rookie start Game 1. Walk gave up six runs in seven innings, but was credited with the win over Kansas City who was managed by another former Cubs General Manager, Jim Frey.
The loss was Pittsburgh's eighth in the previous ten games. It left them tied with Montreal atop the National League East. However, the Pirates immediately turned things around after this game, winning their next eleven games in a row. At the end of this eleven-game winning streak, on August 12th, the Pirates had a 2 1/2 game lead over Montreal. The Cubs were 9 1/2 back. Pittsburgh would eventually win the division by 9 games over the Expos.
Serving up the series-sweeping home run to Sosa would not turn out to be Pittsburgh closer Belinda's lowest moment of the '92 season. In Game 7 of that season's NLCS, Belinda served up a two-out, two-run single to Atlanta third-string catcher Francisco Cabrera in the bottom of the ninth inning, turning a 2-1 Atlanta loss into a 3-2 Atlanta victory. It remains the only elimination game in postseason baseball history that had changed leads with two outs on the final hit. Two of the winning three runs in that ninth inning game were unearned on acount of a fielding error by Pittsburgh's second baseman, Chico Lind. Ironically, Pirates manager Jim Leyland had been one of the more vocal advocates for Lind to win a National League Gold Glove Award in 1992, and Leyland spared no sentiment in denigrating the play of Ryne Sandberg, the Cubs second baseman whose streak of nine consecutive Gold Glove seasons would indeed be halted by Lind at season's end.
External Links
Game information courtesy of Retrosheet
