Cubs historical sleuthing: Play at the plate edition

Getty Images says:

Mike Piazza of the Los Angeles Dodgers catches during an MLB game against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois during the 1994 season.

One thing I know right away: This isn’t from 1994, because Brian McRae wasn’t on the Cubs in 1994. He played for the Cubs from 1995 through July 1997, when he was traded to the Mets.

This is also obviously clearly McRae scoring a run. It can’t be McRae backing out of the way of a pitch, because Piazza doesn’t have his mask on. While Piazza does have the ball, McRae appears to have touched the plate before Piazza got to tag him.

So, what we have here is:

• A day game at Wrigley between the Cubs and Dodgers in the time frame above
• It’s sunny and warm out — fans are not wearing jackets
• McRae has scored a run

This narrowed things down pretty quickly, because otherwise this might have been tough. I eliminated games where it was either cold or rainy or both, because that wouldn’t have matched the sunny scene we see here.

This play happened Wednesday, September 13, 1995. It’s the only game that matches both a McRae run scoring and a sunny, warm day game in that time frame. The September date also matches the late-summer type shadows and sun that we see here.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Jaime Navarro doubled and McRae walked with one out and both runners advanced on a wild pitch. Todd Haney hit into a force play at the plate with McRae holding second base, and then Mark Grace singled him in.

The Cubs led this game 6-1 at that point and went to the ninth leading 6-3. After a leadoff walk, Randy Myers then served up back-to-back homers to Tim Wallach and Roberto Kelly, tying the score.

Eventually the Cubs loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the 13th and Shawon Dunston singled in the winning run.