Two bunts and a home run combined to help produce a rare postseason inning for the Chicago Cubs on Saturday night.
In the top of the second in Game 2 of the National League Division Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, the Cubs had runners on first and third with one out when starting pitcher Kyle Hendricks put down a sacrifice bunt.
Instead of getting Hendricks at first, however, Cardinals pitcher Jaime Garcia threw the ball away. Austin Jackson scored, and runners were at second and third for the No. 9 batter, Addison Russell.
Russell also laid down a sacrifice bunt, scoring Miguel Montero from third and moving Hendricks to third.
The Cubs had two or more sacrifice bunts in one game twice all season before the playoffs -- and they had two in one inning Saturday. Never in postseason history had a team put down two sacrifice bunts, both with a runner on third, in the same game.
Elias Sports Bureau research shows that it was the first time in postseason history that a team drove in a run with a sacrifice bunt twice in the same inning.
A single and a home run by Jorge Soler wrapped up the Cubs’ scoring in the second and chased Garcia.
All five of the Cubs’ runs in the second were unearned. The last pitcher to allow five unearned runs in a postseason game was Tim Hudson, who allowed five in Game 4 of the 2002 American League Division Series for the Oakland Athletics.
Those five runs made for the Cubs' biggest postseason inning since they scored six in the first inning of Game 2 of the 1989 NLCS against the San Francisco Giants.
