ST. LOUIS — Only one thought ran through Adbert Alzolay’s head as he watched his last pitch fly toward the grass beyond Busch Stadium’s center-field wall.
“How did he hit that ball?”
Alzolay located his 1-2 fastball up and away to St. Louis Cardinals pinch-hitting lefty Alec Burleson, exactly where the Cubs closer wanted it with two outs. Burleson instead barreled the ball to dead center, sending Mike Tauchman drifting toward the yellow 400-foot marker emblazoned on the wall.
He perfectly timed his jump to rob Burleson of a walk-off two-run homer for the final out. Tauchman’s game-saving catch in the 3-2 victory Friday night secured the Cubs’ season-high seventh consecutive win and moved them above .500 for the first time since May 6.
The Cubs dugout emptied onto the field when Tauchman barrel-rolled off the ground and pulled the ball out of his glove, setting off a celebration. Miguel Amaya hopped out of his crouch behind the plate while Alzolay pounded his chest toward the rookie catcher and then greeted Tauchman with a high-five and hug on the infield dirt. Nico Hoerner could only stand there and take it all in after minutes earlier he had provided to that point the game’s defining defensive sequence with a nifty double play for the first outs of the ninth.
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“Probably the most dramatic single play I’ve been a part of in the big leagues,” Hoerner said of Tauchman’s catch. “As far as just the game and where we’re at in the season and obviously pretty big implications, just a pretty amazing moment.”
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Initially, as he tracked the ball, Tauchman didn’t think it would get that close to the wall. But as soon as he felt the warning track dirt beneath his feet, Tauchman knew he had 2½ to 3 steps before he needed to jump.
“As outfielders we’re taught get to the wall and then you have time to make the adjustments you need to,” Tauchman said. “So you have that internal clock or feeling of, I’ve got to go up now and it just coincided with the ball coming down. I didn’t know I was right at the wall until I turned to catch the ball, but just happy to make the play for the team in that spot.”
In the ninth inning, with the Cubs clinging to a one-run lead, the Cardinals challenged them on the four balls put in play with expected batting averages of .630, .430, .490 and .490. A team built on defense up the middle saved the day.
With their victory Friday night versus the Cardinals, the Cubs (51-50) clinched their first season-series win against them since 2017. They sit 3½ back of the final wild-card spot and 4½ games out of first place in the division.
Manager David Ross bluntly put the game in perspective: “We don’t win that game early in the season.”
“When things are going good, stuff like that — guys are playing with a lot of focus and concentration,” Ross said. “There’s no quit in this group.”