A pitcher’s duel between Johnny Cueto and Jon Lester was likely to come down to one mistake, and Chicago Cubs second baseman Javier Baez was the one capitalize on that lone slip-up.
Baez’s solo home run with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning was the only scoring in Game 1 of the National League Division Series, a 1-0 win for the Cubs over the visiting San Francisco Giants.
That was one of just three hits that Cueto allowed while striking out 10. He’d retired eight in a row before going to 3-2 on Baez and left one over the plate. The ball barely cleared the fence in left field, wedging into the basket over the ivy.
Lester allowed five hits and struck out six in eight innings for Chicago, retiring the final 13 batters he faced for the win.
Game 2 is set for Saturday at 8 p.m. ET.
Scroll down for all of our real-time updates, statistics, tweets, pictures and analysis of Game 1 in Chicago.
Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com