In terms of runs per game, the two highest-scoring teams in the NL met in Coors Field on Friday. The Cubs, who are averaging 5.1 runs per game in 2016, are visiting the Rockies. Colorado averages 5.26 runs per game. Only the Red Sox (5.49) have averaged more runs than those two teams this year.
Friday's game was a wild back-and-forth affair, with the Cubs jumping out to a 5-1 lead before the Rockies rallied to tie in the seventh and eighth innings. Chicago took a 6-5 lead in the top of the 11th when ex-Rockie Dexter Fowler dunked a single into shallow center field to score the go-ahead run.
Following Fowler's single, Cubs skipper Joe Maddon went to new closer Aroldis Chapman for the save, and usually that means game over. Not on this night. Nick Hundley laced a one-out single to right, then Ryan Raburn clobbered a double off the right-center field wall. Things got interesting after that. To the video:
Relay man Javier Baez managed to throw the ball into the dugout while trying to cut Hundley down at the plate. A ball thrown into the stands or dugout in a situation like that results in two bases for the runner, which is why Raburn was allowed to score. He was already on second after the double.
Maddon came out and argued Raburn should have only been awarded one base, because what else is he supposed to do? This is a judgment call, however, so it's not reviewable. Only black-and-white plays are reviewable. Safe or out, fair or foul, that sort of thing. Here's the exact rule, Rule 7.05. Emphasis mine:
Each runner including the batter-runner may, without liability to be put out, advance --
Two bases when, with no spectators on the playing field, a thrown ball goes into the stands, or into a bench (whether or not the ball rebounds into the field), or over or under or through a field fence, or on a slanting part of the screen above the backstop, or remains in the meshes of a wire screen protecting spectators. The ball is dead. When such wild throw is the first play by an infielder, the umpire, in awarding such bases, shall be governed by the position of the runners at the time the ball was pitched; in all other cases the umpire shall be governed by the position of the runners at the time the wild throw was made
Raburn was already on second base -- he was actually between second and third -- when Baez received the throw as the cutoff man and threw it away, which is why Raburn was given two additional bases and allowed to score the winning run. The final score was 7-6 Rockies (box score).
Check out the game's win probability graph. At one point in the seventh inning the Cubs had a 94.7 percent chance to win the game. The Rockies then rallied to tie the game in the eighth, and eventually win the game in the 11th.
Source: FanGraphs
Ultimately, the loss is frustrating but it shouldn't have a huge impact on the Cubs. They still own baseball's best record at 77-44, and they have a comfortable 12-game lead in the NL Central. If something happens and they squander that lead, it'll be because something much worse than Baez's error happens down the stretch.
