Maybe I should write that players are “done” more often.
No matter what happens with the remainder of Justin Turner’s tenure with the Cubs, we will always have the wonderful memory of his walkoff double — his first extra-base hit of the year! — that gave the Cubs a stirring comeback 5-4 walkoff win over the Marlins Tuesday evening at Wrigley Field.
Here, have a look at Turner’s hit [VIDEO].
Kudos to Turner, that was a well-struck ball and beyond the thrills it gave the full house of 38,083 at Wrigley, it had to be a real thrill for Turner, who … well, he had struggled mightily until Tuesday evening.
Let’s rewind to the beginning of this game.
Ben Brown served up a solo homer to Kyle Stowers in the second inning. The Cubs got that run back in the third on another solo shot, this one by Pete Crow-Armstrong, his 11th [VIDEO].
The Marlins pushed across one more in the fifth off Brown, but the Cubs immediately got that back in the bottom of the inning. Nico Hoerner, celebrating his 28th birthday, was hit by a pitch. Nicky Lopez then hit a ball to first base that was thrown away for an error, with Nico taking third.
Hoerner scored on this sac fly by PCA [VIDEO].
Brown was allowed to start the sixth, but he got into trouble with two singles sandwiched around a strikeout. Caleb Thielbar was summoned, and did the job with a strikeout of Stowers and a fly to right to end the inning.
Brown threw well overall, keeping his pitch count down (72 pitches, 56 strikes) and striking out six. Here are those six K’s [VIDEO].
Here’s more on Brown’s start [VIDEO].
The Cubs went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the sixth and Julian Merryweather came on to throw the seventh.
If Turner hadn’t had his walkoff hit, this recap would have likely focused on Merryweather’s troubles. Connor Norby hit Merryweather’s second pitch into the bleachers for a 3-2 Marlins lead. Merryweather also gave up a couple of hard-hit singles and hard-hit outs. One of those outs was on this nice sliding catch by Seiya Suzuki [VIDEO].
That turned out to be an important play, because Merryweather eventually wound up loading the bases on walks after the second single, which had given Miami a 4-2 lead.
Ryan Pressly was summoned. This likely did not fill you with confidence. But Pressly calmly struck out Stowers to end the inning.
About Merryweather, his velocity appeared to be down — he was throwing only 95 or so, as opposed to the 98 he can usually dial up on his fastball. This is the third outing in his last four where he’s been hit hard and allowed two runs. Could he be injured?
Anyway, the Cubs offense died after PCA’s sac fly. The next seven Cubs went down in order before Turner batted for Lopez and walked with two out in the seventh. But he was stranded, and the Cubs went down 1-2-3 in the eighth.
Credit is due here to Chris Flexen, who threw two scoreless innings, despite allowing a pair of baserunners in the top of the ninth. Flexen has been quite useful since joining the Cubs.
So the Cubs went to the bottom of the ninth trailing by two. Jesús Tinoco came in to close for Miami. You might remember his brief time as a Cub — two weeks last July, in which he appeared in two games, allowing no runs in four innings before the Marlins claimed him on waivers.
Carson Kelly began the ninth by hitting a ball to short that was bobbled by Marlins shortstop Xavier Edwards. It was initially ruled a hit, later changed to an error. Dansby Swanson walked, putting the tying run on base.
That brought up Moises Ballesteros, whose MLB debut got a bit overshadowed by Turner’s heroics. Ballesteros isn’t fast, but he beat a potential double-play relay [VIDEO].
That turned out to be very, very important. Vidal Bruján ran for Ballesteros.
Kelly scored from second to make it 4-3, with Bruján taking third, and there’s still only one out.
That brought up Turner, and of course you want to see the walkoff hit again [VIDEO].
Again, kudos to Turner for his perfectly-struck ball. One more note on Turner’s walkoff hit:
Justin Turner (40 y, 171 d): oldest Cub with a walkoff hit since Davey Lopes (41 y, 60 d) had walkoff HR 7/2/1986
— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) May 14, 2025
Also kudos to Boog Sciambi — that was a very good walkoff call.
A couple of notes on Ballesteros, whose MLB debut was overshadowed by the walkoff win. He got loud ovations each time he came to bat, but looked a bit overmatched in his first MLB game, hitting ground balls all four times at bat, once for a double play. But beating that DP relay in the ninth turned out to be very, very important.
About Ballesteros’ debut at age 21, from BCB’s JohnW53:
Cubs debuts at age 21 before Ballesteros, since 2008:
Javier Baez, on Aug. 5, 2014 (21 years, 247 days)
Addison Russell, on April 21, 2015 (21/88)
Brailyn Marquez, on Sept. 27, 2020 (21/241)
PCA, on Sept. 11, 2023 (21/170)
Ballesteros is the 64th Cub to debut at age 21.
He is the 2,267th Cub since Opening Day of 1876.
And some walkoff game info from John:
Based on my research, that was the Cubs’ 992nd walkoff win since 1876. It was the 894th in the Modern Era, the 951st at home and the 789th at Wrigley Field. It was their 10th vs. the Marlins, who have walked off the Cubs nine times. The Cubs have lost 921 games via walkoff.
The stunning comeback gave the Cubs the series win and increased their division lead to 1½ games over the Cardinals, who were rained out in Philadelphia. The Cards and Phils will play two today.
Here are Craig Counsell’s postgame comments [VIDEO].
Sometimes wins like this give a team momentum and sometimes not. Hopefully this one helps the Cubs get a long winning streak going.
The Cubs will go for a series sweep over the Marlins Wednesday evening at Wrigley Field. Jameson Taillon will start for the Cubs and Ryan Weathers gets the call for Miami. Game time is 6:40 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.