Cubs Heroes and Goats: Game 93

Okay, kids, prepare to turn your clocks back a half a century for today's Fun Fact, because it's one heck of a doozie.

Graphs for Game 93 (courtesy of Fangraphs):

Stats for Game 93:

Writer's Note: The daily selections of the three Heroes and three Goats are based solely on the top three and bottom three WPA scores for the game. The selections are not based on my subjective opinion.

The Gonzalez Mishap of Game 93: With the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth and one out, Kris Bryant hits a grounder to Jose Reyes who goes around the horn for the game-ending 5-4-3 double play. WPA impact: -529. Ouch.

THE THREE HEROES:

• Superhero - Jake Arrieta (.268). Hey, look! It's the only guy whose podium fate had absolutely nothing to do with the ninth inning! Well, one out of six ain't bad, I think... Or is it?...
• Hero - Javier Baez (.189). That bunt of his in the ninth was far from a thing of beauty, but hey, it doesn't always have to look pretty to count in the standings.
• Sidekick - Addison Russell (.171). And rounding out the Heroes, it's the walk that started the ninth.

THE THREE GOATS:

• Billy Goat - Kris Bryant (-.550). How rare was Bryant's Billy Goat performance on Tuesday? How's this: It's only the ninth time in Cubs history that a hitter has posted a WPA of -.550 or worse, and you have to go back to Jose Macias on June 13, 2004 to find the last time that it happened. On top of that, Bryant is the only Cub in the history of WPA tracking -- which currently goes back to 1930 on Baseball Reference -- and only the sixth player in all of baseball to do it while also recording two hits in the game, for which you have to go back to Cecil Cooper on May 8, 1984. And to complete the trifecta, he's only the third player ever to do it while only recording five plate appearances in a game, meaning you have to go back 55 years to Vic Power on July 9, 1961 to find the last time anyone had a similar stat line in a game. Although Power probably wins the ultimate prize because he hit a double and a triple in that game prior to ending it with a bases-loaded game-ending 6-4-3.
• Goat - Hector Rondon (-.310). Came this close to getting a double play earlier in the ninth and then gave up the two-out single to Rene Rivera to put the Cubs in the hole. Had it not been for Bryant, the Gonzalez would have belonged to him in this one.
• Kid - Matt Szczur (-.206). He did end up making contact in the bottom of the ninth, but unfortunately it was right to James Loney at first who turned it into an easy 3-2 fielder's choice.

RANKINGS THROUGH GAME 93: Arrieta begins his climb back toward second place, trailing Jon Lester by five points in the chase.