Jason Heyward picked a pretty good time to hit his first career walk-off homer.
With the Chicago Cubs trailing the Philadelphia Phillies 5-3 in the bottom of the 9th inning after closer Brandon Morrow gave up his first home run since September 8, 2016 to Dylan Cozens (first career Major League home run), Heyward was at the plate with the bases loaded and two outs and matched up against Phillies left-handed pitcher Adam Morgan.
The count on Heyward ended up getting to 2-2, and then Morgan threw Heyward a 97 mile per hour fastball that he didn’t miss a single bit:
That was grand! pic.twitter.com/GpjhXRcwPf
— Cubs Talk (@NBCSCubs) June 7, 2018
The ball left Heyward’s bat at 106.9 miles per hour per Statcast, and traveled 415 feet. It was the first walk-off grand slam by a Cubs player since Alfonso Soriano against the Houston Astros on July 27, 2009, according to ESPN Stats and Info.
Heyward has struggled to hit left-handed pitching all year and for the greater part of his tenure with the Cubs, but his overall hitting has been trending in the right direction. After slashing .239/.346/.388 in April, Heyward slashed .283/.328/.377 in May. He came into tonight’s contest batting .278 for the month of June so far.
The 28-year-old Heyward is now batting .261/.327/.392 on the season with 3 home runs and 25 runs batted in. First baseman Anthony Rizzo also homered in the game for the Cubs off of right-handed starter Aaron Nola. It was Rizzo’s 9th of the year, and his homer also went 415 feet.
Photo: Getty Images
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