Since joining the Cubs last season, Frank Schwindel has come to the plate twice in the ninth inning with the bases loaded and 2 outs.
On April 24, at Atlanta, he struck out.
On Tuesday, at San Diego, he hit a fly ball that was caught just in front of the left field wall.
From the start of 1915, the first season for which baseball-reference.com has searchable, play-by-play data, through Wednesday, Cubs have batted 834 times with 3 on and 2 out in the ninth or later.
They have delivered 190 hits, drawn 67 walks and struck out 152 times.
Their combined slash line is .250/.315/.371.
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CUBS WITH MOST OPPORTUNITIES
397 different players have batted in that situation.
Only 6 have done so at least 10 times.
Collectively, those 6 went 15 for 64, with 2 walks and 1 hit by pitch. They struck out 9 times.
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Ryne Sandberg had 15 such plate appearances, 3 more than anyone else.
He mustered only 2 hits and made 13 outs. Both hits were singles and came in the top of the ninth, in 1984, with the Cubs behind by 7-4 at St. Louis and in 1987 with the Cubs trailing by 12-2 at New York.
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Ernie Banks fared better in his 12 PA, with 4 hits, all singles in the ninth.
His first came in 1954, with the Cubs down, 6-1, to the visiting Reds.
On April 24, 1959, Al Dark's 2-out single in the bottom of the ninth with runners on first and second brought the Cubs to within 3-2 of the Giants. The outfielder threw to third on the play, too late to catch the runner from first, and when the third baseman bobbled the ball, Dark took second.
Banks then lined a 2-strike single to right, driving home the tying run. But when Dark tried to end the game, he was thrown out by a wide margin. The Giants scored in the 11th and won, 4-3.
In 1967, Banks singled home 2 runs at Philadelphia with the Cubs already on top, 4-1.
Then, on April 13, 1969, Banks gave the Cubs a 7-6 walk-off win over the Expos, moments have Ron Santo had walked, forcing in the tying run.
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Sammy Sosa was 3 for 9 plus a walk with 2 outs and the bases loaded in the ninth or later.
He singled in the bottom of the ninth in 1996, with the Cubs losing to the Cardinals, 10-4.
He doubled in the top of the 15th in 2000, with the Cubs leading the Brewers, 5-4. He had flied out in the ninth in the same situation.
On April 20, 2001, he hit a grand slam in the top of the ninth at Pittsburgh to extend the Cubs' lead to 8-2.
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Shawon Dunston went 3 for 10, all singles and all on the road.
In 1989, he drove in 2 runs in the ninth at San Francisco with the Cubs down, 7-4.
In 1991, his hit broke a 3-3 tie in the 11th at Los Angeles. The Cubs ultimately lost, 6-5, in the 13th.
In 1995, he added 2 runs to the Cubs' 5-1 bulge in the ninth at Philadelphia.
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Stan Hack was 2 for 9 plus a walk.
He cleared the bases with a double in the ninth in 1935 at Boston, making the score 8-2.
He singled home 2 runners in the ninth in 1938 at St. Louis, making it 11-5.
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Billy Williams was just 1 for 9 plus a hit by pitch.
His lone hit came in 1972, in the top of the ninth at Houston and made the score 11-3.
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OTHERS OF NOTE
Ron Santo and Manny Trillo each batted 9 times with the bases loaded and 2 outs in the ninth inning or later.
Jose Cardenal did so 8 times, and 10 players did it 7 times, with Anthony Rizzo as the most recent.
David Bote, Ian Happ and Jason Heyward lead players still with the Cubs, with 3 appearances.
Bote's first was his "Ultimate Slam" that beat the Nationals, 4-3, on Aug. 12, 2018. Since then, he hit into a forceout in the 12th at Arizona in 2019 and grounded out in the ninth, ending the game, at Cincinnati, last year.
In 2018, Happ was hit by a pitch in the bottom of the ninth at home against the Braves and struck out in the top of the 11th at New York against the Mets. Last year, he flied out in the bottom of the 10th to conclude a loss to the Brewers.
Heyward struck out in the bottom of the ninth against the Rockies in 2017; homered to beat the Phillies, 7-5, in 2018; and struck out in the top of the 14th at Arizona in 2019.
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ALL PA WITH BASES LOADED
In all of the Cubs' 16,754 games from the start of 1915 through Wednesday, a player came to the plate with the bases loaded 14,354 times. That is only 2.2 percent of all 641,088 plate appearances.
Of the PA with all bases occupied, 47.2 percent came with the Cubs ahead, 24.2 percent with the score tied and 28.6 percent with the Cubs behind.
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Ernie Banks had by far the most PA with the bases loaded: 231. He put up an impressive slash line: .323/.312/.525, for an OPS of .869. His 62 hits included a team-record 12 grands slams.
Ron Santo ranks second, with 200. He slashed .307/.370/.485, .855, with 8 homers among 50 hits.
Only 2 others have had at least 150 PA with 3 on base.
Gabby Hartnett, with 162, batted .375/.438/.588, 1.027, with 4 homers.
Ryne Sandberg, with 152, batted .315/.309/.540, .856, with 5 homers.
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Fifteen more Cubs came to the plate with the bases loaded at least 100 times, from Billy Jurges and Hack Wilson, both with 104, to Sammy Sosa, with 146.
Jody Davis fell just short, with 98.
Among current Cubs, Jason Heyward has 69 such PA, tying him with Hank Sauer for 39th on the list. Willson Contreras, with 65, is tied for 45th with Ivan de Jesus, Cliff Heathcote and Addison Russell.
A total of 1,046 different players have batted with runners on every base. Collectively, they hit .277/.316/.418, for an OPS of .734.
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PA WITH 2 OUTS, BASES LOADED
Nearly half of all the bases-loaded PA came with 2 out: 6,568 of 14,354, which is 46.7 percent.
49.2 percent came with the Cubs ahead, 23.1 percent with the score tied and 27.7 percent with the Cubs behind.
That is 2 percentage points higher with a lead, and 1 percentage point less with both the scored tied and trailing, then for all bases-loaded PA.
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The leaders in 2-out, bases-loaded opportunities:
88: Ernie Banks
77: Ron Santo
76: Charlie Grimm, Stan Hack, Gabby Hartnett
69: Don Kessinger
68: Glenn Beckert, Ryne Sandberg, Sammy Sosa
67: Anthony Rizzo
65: Billy Williams
Five more had at least 50, for a total of 16. Jody Davis and Manny Trillo had 49.
Jason Heyward, with 38, is tied with Peanuts Lowrey and Keith Moreland for 24th.
Willson Contreras is tied with Dom Dallessandro, Frank Demaree, Randy Jackson and Hank Sauer for 49th.
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The 909 players who batted at least once with 2 outs and 3 on batted .247/.308/.379, for an OPS of .687.
That is lower by .030/.008/..039 than for all PA with the bases full.
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PA WITH 2 OUTS, BASES LOADED, 9TH OR LATER
Since 1915, the Cubs have had 1,786 PA in the ninth inning or later with the bases loaded, which is 12.5 percent of PA with 3 on base.
A little less than half, 834, came with 2 outs
Those 834 amount to 5.8 percent of PA with the bases full, 0.4 percent of PA with 2 outs and 0.1 percent of all PA.
28.8 percent of the 834 came with the Cubs ahead, 34.4 percent with the score tied and 36.8 with the Cubs behind.
That is quite a different distribution than with 2 outs and the bases loaded in all innings, cited above: 49.2 percent ahead, 23.1 tied and 27.7 percent behind.
The batters and their combined slash line for this situation were described previously.
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HISTORIC HITS
These were the first Cubs, beginning in 1915, to deliver each kind of hit with the bases full and 2 outs in the ninth inning or later:
Single: Bob Fisher, Oct. 2, 1915, 12th inning, at Cincinnati, score tied at 3
Double: Charlie Deal, July 23, 1919, 9th inning, at Cincinnati, scored tied at 3 (drove in 3 runs)
Triple: Hippo Vaughn, May 8, 1920, 9th inning, at Pittsburgh, score tied at 1
(The only other such triple was by Randy Jackson, on Sept. 21, 1955, in the 13th inning, at St. Louis, with the scored tied at 3.)
Home run: Charlie Grimm, June 16, 1930, 9th inning, at New York, score tied at 4
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These were the first Cubs with a hit of each kind, with the bases full and 2 outs in the ninth or later, that brought the Cubs from behind to ahead:
Single: Ken O'Dea, June 10, 1936, 9th inning, at home vs. Phillies, for 4-3 win
Double: Ripper Collins, Aug. 16, 1938, 9th inning, at Philadelphia, with Cubs trailing, 5-4 (drove in 3 runs)
Triple: None
Home run: Ellis Burton, Aug. 31, 1963, 9th inning, at home vs. Astros, with Cubs trailing, 5-2.
The Cubs have had only 2 subsequent go-ahead home runs with the bases loaded and 2 out in the 9th or later. The first was by Andre Dawson, on April 19, 1991, in the 9th, at Pittsburgh, with the Cubs behind, 3-0. The second was Bote's "Ultimate Slam" against the Nationals in 2018.
