Chicago Cubs: What’s with the sudden influx of position players on the hill?

Chicago Cubs: Boys, welcome to the other side

In less than a week now, the Cubs have managed to find opportunities to fit position players into relief roles, not of course by their own accord. The first came a few days back, in a game which quickly got out of hand against the St. Louis Cardinals.

After the game got away, in a combined effort, three position players finished off the game. Tommy La Stella pitched 1 1/3 innings, giving up a run on three hits. Victor Caratini replaced him, going an inning himself, surrendering two runs. Finally, Ian Happ logged a scoreless inning to finish the blowout loss. It was a way to entertain fans during an otherwise terrible outing for the Cubs.

Once Farrell quickly faltered, and an already overworked bullpen logged even more innings, the Cubs once again turned to position players to pick up the back half of the game. Caratini made his second appearance in a few days and Rizzo, making his first career appearance, got the call to make it happen.

The results did not disappoint.