Drew Smyly didn’t count on to be on the mound Thursday night time for the Field of Dreams sport.
The Chicago Cubs left-hander wasn’t lined as much as begin Major League Baseball’s second sport on the web site of the basic 1989 film till final week, when a rainout in St. Louis pushed again Smyly’s begin by at some point.
Smyly sometimes tries to reach on the ballpark as late as potential so he doesn’t have an excessive amount of time to let his thoughts wander. He prefers to evaluation the sport plan, get free and go pitch. An irregular game-day schedule Thursday didn’t faze the veteran, nonetheless. The Cubs departed Wrigley Field at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, flew to Dubuque, Iowa, after which bused the remaining 25 miles to Dyersville. Smyly joined his teammates throughout their pregame stroll by way of the cornfields to the film set’s iconic discipline, taking all of it in.
He made positive to face on the stadium’s tarp-covered mound pregame to get the angle and visualization of what he anticipated experiencing Thursday night time.
“A game like this, you obviously want to play well, but you just feel like a kid again,” Smyly mentioned. “You’re out there playing baseball in the middle of Iowa, playing a Major League Baseball game. It’s so unique and a cool experience.”
Smyly, backed by a three-run first inning, locked in to document a season-high 9 strikeouts over 5 shutout innings within the Cubs’ 4-2 victory towards the Cincinnati Reds on a picturesque night time. Rowan Wick earned the save.
Between innings, Smyly caught himself staring on the cornfields, trying over the left discipline wall from the Cubs dugout on the primary base facet.
“It’s just something I’ve never seen before and and just thinking about sitting here in a major-league dugout trying to pitch a game for the Cubs and all I’m looking at is endless cornfields,” Smyly mentioned.
Smyly scattered 4 hits and walked two whereas decreasing his ERA to three.69 in 15 begins. Smyly’s outing coincided along with his oldest daughter’s fifth birthday. His household was among the many sellout crowd of seven,823 followers.
“I hope she can remember it the older she gets, I know I will,” Smyly mentioned. “All she knows is going to big stadiums in these big cities. So she drove out here to the cornfields and gets to watch me play baseball. It’s pretty cool and neat and it’s something that I know I’ll remember the rest of my life.”
Three consecutive run-scoring hits off Reds left-hander Nick Lodolo sparked the Cubs within the first behind Seiya Suzuki (double), Nico Hoerner (single) and Ian Happ (double). It took some stress off Smyly and allowed him to assault the Reds extra aggressively.
Willson Contreras gave the impression to be in important ache after rolling his left ankle after a tough flip and cease round second base on Wisdom’s single to left discipline within the third. Contreras instantly buckled to the bottom and was tagged out. But he was again behind the plate for the highest of the fourth and performed the remainder of the sport.
Nick Madrigal’s RBI single within the fourth prolonged the Cubs’ result in 4-0. He recorded his first three-hit sport since April and stole one base to match his season complete. Madrigal stepped up after lacking out on enjoying in final 12 months’s inaugural Field of Dreams sport with the Chicago White Sox. Already sidelined by season-ending surgical procedure on his proper hamstring, Madrigal was unable to benefit from the expertise due to his commerce to the Cubs earlier than the Aug. 12, 2021 sport.
Madrigal had seemed ahead to Thursday’s sport for the reason that starting of the season.
“The whole setup, the game, the stadium was unbelievable,” Madrigal mentioned. “I wasn’t too sure what the actual field was going to be like. But it was incredible. To have the fans feel like they’re right on top of you, overall, it’s just pretty big.”
Hoerner likened the Field of Dreams surroundings to a collegiate environment.
“Definitely not normal, I could visibly see a horse from shortstop pretty easily,” Hoerner mentioned with amusing.
A hologram of former Cubs announcer Harry Caray sang “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” throughout the seventh-inning stretch. The Reds adopted with their first runs of the sport, making it 4-2 on Matt Reynolds’ two-run double towards reliever Michael Rucker.
This was the second Field of Dreams sport in Dyersville. The White Sox beat the New York Yankees 9-8 final August.
While the sport itself counts as a lot as some other regular-season sport within the standings, among the most heartful moments occurred exterior the white chalk traces. Before the groups walked by way of the cornfields collectively past the right-field wall for the pregame entrance, a few Cubs gamers had baseballs signed by the Reds and Cubs Hall of Famers attending the occasion, a bunch that included Johnny Bench, Barry Larkin, Ryne Sandberg, Fergie Jenkins, Lee Smith and Billy Williams.
For Happ, whose father, Keith, died in 2015 of mind most cancers, quiet moments reflecting on their time collectively conjure the best way tales depart a long-lasting influence and produce individuals collectively, whether or not it’s the Field of Dreams movie or the Cubs’ 2016 World Series title run.
“When I’m around this place and relate to the movie, that’s what I think about,” Happ mentioned. “All the magical things and what makes people fall in love with this game and why it is so special.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com