In his first at-bat of the second half of the season, catcher Willson Contreras stepped up to the plate and put his money where his mouth was, sending a soaring, three-run homer into the Wrigley Field bleachers.
It was a perfect moment for an All-Star who’d vowed a few days earlier in Cleveland, site of the Midsummer Classic, to have the kind of second half that established him as a truly elite player.
“I know I can do it,” he said then, “because it is very, very important to me.”
As luck would have it, that homer came in Contreras’ one and only game after the All-Star break before he was forced to the injured list with a sore foot. After he recovered from that, he played nine games before a hamstring injury sent his season off the rails.
Ten measly games? That’s all Contreras had to show for his second half before he made another return to the lineup Tuesday against the Mariners at Wrigley Field. It was his first game in a long, trying month.
And guess what he did in at-bat No. 1 against Felix Hernandez.
That’s right: another long ball.
Does anyone know if @WContreras40 is back?#EverybodyIn pic.twitter.com/hLiovi5Dcs
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) September 4, 2019
Contreras is back. He intends to make a serious impact.
“Oh, yeah, I’ll ready to go to be [behind the plate] every day,” he said Tuesday. “The manager knows. I already talked to him, and hopefully he listens.”
Attention, Joe Maddon: Your guy isn’t messing around.
“That was a joke,” Contreras said. “But [Maddon] knows that I came back here ready to play. I know the last week has been tough for the team, but my goal is to lift up the team and push them into the playoffs.”
The Cubs need somebody to be their best player over the final two dozen games of the regular season. Why not Contreras? Why not the guy Maddon calls the best catcher in the league?
There’s a good chance it won’t be Kris Bryant, who was scratched from the lineup Tuesday as he continues to wrestle with a sore knee. It might not be Javy Baez, who has a banged-up thumb that won’t make the home run mini-drought he’s in any easier to club his way out of.
And Nick Castellanos probably can’t hit like a Hall of Famer forever.
Maybe Contreras will pack every bit of the second half he hoped to have into a few great September weeks. At this point, it’s the best he can hope for.
“It’s going to be a tough race until the last game,” he said. “We’re still, what, three games behind [the Cardinals]? There’s a lot of games left. I think playing one game at a time will take us to the lead.”
And that, people, was no joke.
JUST SAYIN’
Speaking of Contreras, has he lost his position as the Cubs’ exulter-in-chief to the newcomer Castellenos?
Who’s more of a jumping, shouting, fist-pumping wild man on the field, anyway?
“I’ve been watching what he’s doing, and he’s amazing,” Contreras said. “I just love it, the way he plays baseball, the energy. He doesn’t disrespect anybody. He just enjoys the game every single time and every single second, and I support him. I am here to support his fire. I know [I’m] going to play with my head on fire.”
This town is big enough for the both of them, isn’t it?
• Nice standing “O” for Ben Zobrist from the fans at Wrigley and his Cubs teammates in the dugout. Not that there was any doubt about how his long-awaited return to the lineup would be received.
• White Sox general manager Rick Hahn was asked if any considerations of contract control factored into the team’s decision not to make mega-prospect Luis Robert a September call-up.
“None,” Hahn said.
Translation: Don’t be in such a hurry to see him in April, either.
• Can we agree that Buona Beef’s incessant ads during Cubs and Sox telecasts purporting there are “North Side” and “South Side” versions of an Italian beef sandwich are egregious misrepresentations of reality?
• Northwestern’s third-down offense vs. the Cubs with runners in scoring position: Discuss.
• There’s no easy way to say this, but the sports books have the Bears as the favorite against the Packers on Thursday by a spread of . . . three points. Otherwise known as a field goal.
It’s probably for the best if nobody tells Eddy Pineiro.
