Chicago Cubs: Ranking the best moments of the 2016 season

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MLB: Washington Nationals at Chicago Cubs /

Baez caps the comeback, sends everyone home happy on Mother’s Day

Speaking as someone who sat in a box behind home plate for this 13-inning marathon, it’s by far the best game I’ve ever been to at Wrigley Field.

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With thousands of fans in the bleachers donning pink t-shirts, special pregame ceremonies dedicated to cancer survivors and mothers like – pink was the color of the day. Although, with how Jake Arrieta started the day off, blue seemed more likely in the early innings.

Chicago trailed 3-1 until plating two runs in the seventh, getting Arrieta off the hook for the loss. It soon became a war of attrition for both the Washington Nationals and the Chicago Cubs as the bullpens thinned and the hours waned on.

Nationals reliever Blake Treinen delivered a 2-2 breaking pitch that hung up in the zone. Baez dropped the head of the bat, driving the ball into the left-field seats, sending those who stuck out the contest home in bliss.

"“I was just trying to get on base and get a good pitch to hit. [Blake Treinen] was throwing hard, 97 [mph] with a sink. After the second strike, I just sat on the slider because they’ve been throwing it to me this series a lot. I was just looking for that pitch and he threw it in the center.”"

For the Cubs, it represented the mantra Joe Maddon had been preaching since the start of the 2015 campaign; grinding wins out and picking each other up in the low spots. Giving up multiple runs was a low spot for Arrieta at that point, and the Cubs’ offense came to the rescue.

"“To the last moment, everybody was there to win that game, and that’s a beautiful thing,” Maddon told MLB.com."

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