Anthony Rizzo spent a decade making magic at Wrigley Field. Apparently he’s not done, even from the seats.
The former Cubs first baseman was at the ballpark Saturday as part of a reunion of the 2016 World Series champions, on hand to dedicate Champions Gate at Gallagher Way and receive a pregame ovation from the crowd that still treats him like royalty. Then he wandered out to the right-field bleachers with his kid in one arm and Ben Zobrist beside him, settling in like any other fan with a better resume.
Bottom of the first inning. Cubs already trailing 1-0 after Minnesota’s Kody Clemens — yes, Roger’s son — had gone deep. Pete Crow-Armstrong and Seiya Suzuki made routine outs. Then Michael Busch, the man currently occupying the position Rizzo once owned, launched one toward right field.
Right at Rizzo. Ball in hand, kid still in the other arm, Zobrist going nuts next to him. You couldn’t write it any neater if you tried.
It was the second time a home run had been hit in Rizzo’s direction as a spectator at Wrigley. Last September, he was in the bleachers when Moisés Ballesteros hit his first major-league homer — also toward Rizzo. He didn’t catch that one. This time he hauled it in, one-handed, like a man who’d spent his whole life catching baseballs for a living. Because he had.
Marquee Sports Network’s Elise Menaker caught up with Rizzo afterward, and Busch himself addressed the surreal moment postgame. The Cubs went on to win 6-2, turning what could have been a footnote into the kind of story that makes this park different from every other one.
The game itself had plenty beyond the Rizzo theater. Matthew Boyd gave the Cubs six strong innings, allowing just two hits beyond Clemens’ first-inning homer while striking out four. Nico Hoerner went 4-for-4 in his 800th game as a Cub — his first perfect four-hit game, after three 4-for-5 performances in 2023. Miguel Amaya’s two-run double in the second gave Chicago a lead it never relinquished. Pedro Ramirez, drawing a walk on an ABS challenge and later delivering an automatic double, had himself a productive afternoon.
Clemens tagged Caleb Thielbar for a second solo shot in the seventh to cut it to 5-2, but the Cubs answered right back when Ramirez drove in Busch for the 6-2 final.
The ninth inning produced one of the wildest double plays you’ll see on a diamond — an 8-2-4-5-3 sequence that began when Crow-Armstrong tracked down a ball in center that nearly any other outfielder would have missed. The Twins’ runners got caught in no-man’s-land, and alert Cubs defense turned a potential rally into a footnote. Jacob Webb closed it out from there.
After the game, the Cubs announced they’d acquired right-hander Aaron Civale from the Athletics for minor-league pitcher Aiden Moffett. Civale posted a 5.42 ERA across 16 appearances in Oakland, and what the Cubs plan to do with him remains unclear. The 40-man roster is now full.
The win kept the Cubs a half-game ahead of the Phillies for the top National League wild-card spot and six games behind the Brewers in the NL Central. Shōta Imanaga gets the ball Sunday against Minnesota’s Zebby Matthews as the Cubs go for the series win.
But the day belonged to a man who wasn’t even in the lineup. Rizzo caught a home run hit by the guy who replaced him, at the park where he became a legend, on the day he was honored for the championship he helped deliver. Sometimes this game serves up a moment so perfect it doesn’t need a script.
Sources: