CHICAGO – Cubs rookie Matt Shaw rounded first base, watched the baseball bouncing through the right-field grass and then turned to see how close Jon Berti was to scoring. When it was clear the win was in hand Tuesday night, Shaw gave a hard clap and then shook his fists in celebration.
Shaw’s opposite-field single in the 11th inning capped a two-run push that sealed a 4-3 win over the Rockies, marking the first walk-off hit of the third baseman’s career. After Berti completed his sprint from second to home, Shaw ran off first base and welcomed the stream of teammates who poured from the home dugout.
“That was awesome,” Shaw said. “So much fun. What a great moment – something that I’ll remember for a long time. Really exciting.”
It was an especially memorable moment for the 23-year-old Shaw – ranked by Pipeline as the Cubs’ top prospect and the 18th-best prospect on the Top 100 list – given the backdrop of his early season ups and downs.
The Cubs recalled Shaw from Triple-A Iowa on May 19 after giving him roughly a month to catch his breath and work on adjustments, following a tough 18-game introduction to the Majors (.172 average and .536 OPS). Shaw got into a rhythm again offensively for the I-Cubs and has continued on that path since rejoining the MLB club.
In his eight games since returning to the Cubs, Shaw has hit at a .355 (11-for-31) clip with four multi-hit games, including on Tuesday night. In the third inning against Colorado, he singled, stole second and scored to help spark a two-run outburst. He added another steal in the fourth and eventually delivered the game’s decisive hit in extras.
“He looks comfortable,” Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said before Tuesday's win. “Whether it’s feeling like he belongs or whatever happened in the Minor Leagues with player development, he looks more comfortable, calm. I think the way he’s taking his at-bats has been better.”
In the 11th, Pete Crow-Armstrong began as the automatic runner at second base and then stole third with one out. Michael Busch made the most of that aggressiveness with an opposite-field single that brought Crow-Armstrong home to pull the game into a 3-3 deadlock.
Berti took over for Busch as a pinch-runner and stole second base ahead of a walk for Nico Hoerner. That set the stage for Shaw, who slipped into a 1-2 count against Rockies reliever Tyler Kinley.
“He’s a good pitcher, good slider,” Shaw said. “I’m just trying to see it deep and hit something the other way.”
Kinley sent a slider low and inside to Shaw, who got enough of the bat on it to send it over the reach of first baseman Michael Toglia with an exit velocity of just 63.8 mph. The ball dropped in and Berti was beyond third base and on his way home by the time Rockies right fielder Tyler Freeman retrieved the ball.
“This is a really fun team,” Shaw said. “We’re never out of games. We’ve had a lot of big comeback wins.”