No starting pitcher in baseball has been better with two strikes than Trevor Bauer this season, but nothing he threw in the third inning Saturday could sneak past Anthony Rizzo.
Bauer tried a curveball that dropped just below the strike zone. Foul. He threw a curveball that spun into the dirt. Another foul, somehow. A high 94-mph fastball, an inside cutter and another curveball that spun near the dirt. Foul, foul and foul.
In the ninth pitch of the at-bat, Rizzo reached below the strike zone on a low sinker, leaned forward and hooked it into the right-field seats for a solo homer.