The Chicago Cubs were getting blown out by the Milwaukee Brewers by enough of a margin on Thursday that Joe Maddon decided to let one of his position players close out the game. And sure enough, Jon Jay ended up pitching better than many of the team’s other pitchers.
Jay, who typically plays outfield for the Cubs, pitched the top of the 9th inning in an 11-2 loss. He threw 16 pitches — 10 for strikes, including this 56-mph pitch that Domingo Santana couldn’t figure out:
Fooled by 56 mph pic.twitter.com/H6PAWZLk5o
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) July 6, 2017
Jay allowed one hit in his scoreless inning, with the hit coming to the aforementioned Santana. All three of his outs were fly balls.
According to MLB.com’s stats for the game, the hardest pitch Jay threw was 66 mph, while the softest were 46 and 47 mph. What can you say? It worked!
